Temples and Shrines Galore

Posted by Chelsie on May 28, 2015 | 6 comments

We enjoyed a really delicious French pastry breakfast at the train station before boarding the subway for the Northern Higashiyama region of Kyoto where there are dozens of temples. We started at Ginkaku-ji, a beautiful villa constructed by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa in 1482. While the landscaping was stunning and the villa was settled perfectly on at the base of the mountain, it was also overrun by junior-high aged school children on field trips so it was a little bit less serene than you would have thought. After grabbing some quick ice cream cones (it is about 90 degrees here), we wandered down the Philosopher’s Walk choosing to stop at temples Honen-in and Nanzen-ji. There are literally too many temples to visit in one day, but I think we chose wisely. Before, I get to the temples, another interesting note is that we saw a sizable snake swimming down the waterway along the Philosopher’s Walk (picture below). Honen-in was a lovely secluded temple set back in the woods with beautiful rock gardens and water features. It was a quiet place for reflection and there were a few people meditating. Nanzen-ji, on the other hand, was a much larger and well-visited temple (although had nowhere near the crowds as Ginkaku-ji) where you could visit the second story of main gate (sanmon) and get a really beautiful view over the city of Kyoto on one side and the mountains on the other side. It also featured an interesting bridge that turned out to be an excellent photography spot.

After a very brief rest stop at the hotel, it was on to Fushimi Inari shrine which is a pretty iconic place to visit in Japan with its thousands of red torii gates. We were able to get some beautiful shots just as the sun was setting. We also met a really great Japanese man who lived in Long Beach in the 1940s. Once he figured out we spoke English, he started showing us all kinds of papers with English phrases on them. At first we were a little bit confused, but after a few moments we figured out that he had written expressions down that he heard, but didn’t understand and was waiting to ask someone to explain what they meant. He did speak pretty good English, but it became really clear to Andrew and I how weird the English language can be when were trying to explain to him what “the long and the short of it,” “acting as someone’s instrument,” and “dirt-cheap” meant. There were a few even we didn’t know (something about a cat’s paw) although I thought of my Nana because she knows all the fun expressions. We had such a wonderful time talking to him that we spent about a half hour chatting.

At the end of the day we were pretty beat, but not so tired that we didn’t enjoy another round of tonkatsu and a few cold beers at our favorite spot. I got to bed before Andrew who ventured out with John to shop for electronics (a theme of the trip at this point for sure) and learn to play Pachinko.