… and Bamboo Forest day. 🙂
So excited! I have wanted to see Kinkaku-ji, also called the ‘Golden Pavilion’ for nearly 20 years now. It is such an amazing building and is one of Japan’s best known sights. I had seen a hint on an internet travel blog that getting there Monday morning bright and early was the only way to go in the summer tourist season, so out the door we were at 8:00am and hitting the buses (I say buses, because there were several!). We arrived on site around 8:45am and the large wooden gates leading into the complex were still closed. This is a map of the entire complex which includes Kinkaku-ji / Rokuon-ji Temple (aka Golden Pavilion…not sure why this place has three names, but it appears to), the Sekka-te Tea House, the Fudo-do Temple and the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen.
The Not So Small Child, however, was not quite as excitied ands he had no idea what we were going to see – so he was busy trying to hook himself onto some free wifi while we waited… in fact, that’s his favourite past time in Japan so far; hunting for free wifi. 😛
The doors opened and we were in a group of about 80 early bird tourists to make it in for hopefully unpeopled photographs. We could see the tour groups in buses arriving as we were going in and I can only imagine that it got very packed very quickly. I am unapologetically posting as many photos of this incredible spot as I can. 🙂 It was so peaceful and serene… the pavilion itself is simply stunning.
It was originally built in 1397 as a retirement villa for a Shogun named Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, but his son converted it to a Zen Buddhist temple. The golden colour is from gold foil on lacquer covers on the upper two levels of Kinkaku, and a shining phoenix stands on top of the shingled roof.
The first level is built in the Shinden style of the 11th C imperial aristocracy, and the second level is built in the Buke style of the warrior aristocracy. The very top level is built in the Chinese Zenshu-Butsuden style, but overall Kinkaku isrepresentative of Muromachi period architecture. All of which is well and good but I read that in 1950 a young monk became obsessed with the temple and his obsession culminated in his burning the place to the ground! So what we are looking at today is a 1955 reconstruction that was completed using the exact original design, but the golden foil covering was extended to cover the lower levels, which the original temple did not have. Obsessed monks indeed… 
Oh, and forget yesterday’s Hojo Gardens at Choin-in Temple… these are far and away the most impressive gardens I have ever seen. So immaculately kept and so beautifully laid out. With so many people coming through I can well understand why there are no seats around for people to loiter on, but it would be absolutely amazing to be in here alone under a tree, watching the nearly 50cm long carp and koi plopping in the water occasionally and listening to the breeze in the trees. Just stunningly gorgeous. Makes you wish you had a few hectares at home to make a garden of your own… oh, and the resources to pay the 20 plus gardeners you’d need to keep it looking so lovely and orderly. It has literally just dawned on me why I feel these gardens are so pleasing – they’re orderly. They’re not strategically overgrown English cottage gardens, which have their own appeal in their own right… they’re precise, expertly pruned, well kept and very, very orderly. Which suits my sensibilities perfectly. 
Off to the side of the pagoda is a little patio/landing where Sayuri is finally united with the Chairman at the end of the film, ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’… going to have to watch that again and see how much of Kyoto, and Gion in particular, is familiar. 🙂
I mean, isn’t that one of the main reasons why we travel? So we can go to the cinema and annoy our movie going companions by whispering, “I’ve been there!” at various exotic destinations. Back me up here, BigSal? 😛 
This sign probably says something hideously practical, like, “Tea house This Way”, but with my in-ability to read Japanese and my current effusive state of mind, I am going to choose to think it reads, “Stairway to Heaven” today. Ask me again tomorrow, and it might read, “Please refrain from using these steps, as you can see they are dangerously worn away from hundreds of years of hundreds of feets using them” … yes, all that in just four characters!
Next thing we saw was the Ryumon Taki, I have no idea what that means, but the tourists have taken it upon themselves to throw coins into the curved stone bowl, and a strategically placed steel bowl that made a satisfying ting as you coin bounced out of it. Of course we all threw a ‘temple coin’ (aka shrappers) into the bowl. Only Mr K got it in one… and he made a wish for good health, because of course we are on the go, go, go which means he’s coming down with something.
Even gorgeous just peeking through the top of the trees…
At the Fudo-do shrine, we saw a row of weird little Fortune boxes, and around the corner, English Fortunes, Chinese Fortunes, and Portuguese Fortunes!? Seemed like an opportunity too good to pass up, so we threw in a coin and a genuine ‘Fortune’ came out.
Et, voila! My fortune… “An unexpected misfortune will happen to you, but you can get over it if you can behave yourself and are prudent.” Well, so much for that… well behaved and prudent. What are the odds? 🙂 
A little baby Shinto shrine, that was around the back of the Fudo-do shrine… I really wish there was ore information on what each of these are for – the complete inability to read anything really makes you feel like you are missing stuff. 
Mr K contemplating the down hill stairs – there may or may not be a bit of delayed onset muscle pain going on after the Mr Fuji adventure… everyone’s a little sore and double thinking things (the way I do every day, it’s kinda cute).
After we left Kinkaku-ji, we were heading for the famous Arashiyama bamboo forest – so famous, it graces the cover of the current edition of the Lonely Planet for Japan that nearly everyone we meet is carrying around (as are we).
On the way, we took a wrong turn from Arashiyama (*mutter mutter* no signs in English anywhere), and ended up wandering over a bridge completely in the wrong direction. In a park, I saw a lovely lady dressed in a formal kimono having some formal photographs taken. Being friendly and REALLY wanting to take her photo, I walked up to them and told her how beautiful I thought she looked and asked the photographers if they were taking photos for a magazine or something. It turns out that this couple are getting married on the 22nd July, and this is their ‘pre-wedding’ photo shoot. Novel idea, but it seems it is quite common here to get your photos taken before the wedding so as not to use up time on the day.
My compliments and congratulations on their upcoming wedding were well received and they were happy to let me take their photo. The blushing bride looked absolutely perfect – though lord knows how she did, given it was 36C, over 70% humidity and nary a breeze to be hard. She must have been so hot under all that, but she just looked so lovely.
Eventually we wandered back up in the correct direction, via a stop for kiwi fruit ice creams, and found the relative coolness of the bamboo forest… and I mean relative. It was probably still 30C something in there, but at least you could take your hat off for a few moments and try cool off. It’s not quite as picturesque as the pics on the guide book, but was a very pleasant stroll nonetheless. I did wonder though that with the hundreds of people also wandering through the grove (that I worked very hard to try and keep out of my pics), why haven’t the city/council, just planted another five or six more bamboo groves in various areas of town? Curious.
Some lovely ladies we saw at the train station – apparently it is quite common for tourists to rent a kimono for the day and have their hair done up to tour various sites, and it is very popular with Chinese visitors. 
After all that – about 5-6 hours wandering around in just draining heat, we came back to Gion and had some quick lunch… followed by a nap for those of us who had completely lost their ability to deal, and The Last Samurai on Blu-Ray for Angel and me. Lunch boxes here are fantastic – so cheap and full of yummy fresh sushi, and available at the 7-11. Wish we could get this sort of thing at home. 🙂 
Escaping from the heat for the afternoon was a good plan, we didn’t head back out until after dark when it was a far more tolerable 26C and still 70% humidity… and only then to go have a quick look around the area at night and try to find some ramen noodles. We found several places open just up the street – it’s weird how many tiny little restaurants there are everywhere here, in amongst the houses and down tiny alleys, great little bars and restaurants that barely seat 10-12 people. We also have vending machines with coffee, soft drinks, water and sports drinks just at the end of the driveway that leads into the apartment, and they seem to be on every other corner. But I digress, we found a great little ramen place about 100m from here (after passing three other restaurants!), and had some delicious traditional (according to the menu ‘traditional 1970s style ramen noodle’… lol) meals. Very quaint little place. 🙂
Not sure what we are doing tomorrow, but no doubt it will involve more sight seeing in the morning, hiding from the heat again in the afternoon, and then going out into Gion to check out the preparations for the festival which starts in two days! 🙂 Lots of lanterns, parade floats and people in the streets, it should be a lot of fun.