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Rokuon-Ji Temple
The Golden Pavilion Besides the large number of typos, misspellings, questionable grammer, and other needs-more-editing mistakes in the past three blogs, I have been corrected by Michi on a few facts I just plain got wrong. So, this enty is to correct a couple things, add some more shots/info from the Kyoto trip, and show a bit of our Sunday afternoon wanderings around Harajuku and Shibuya.
Kyoto Corrections:
Ginkakuji Temple was established by Shogunate Yoshimasa, not Yshimas as I originally typed.
And it's Heian Shrine, not Hein Shrine. The "temple in the sky," which I posted a pic of, but forgot to write about, is called Kiyomizu-Dera, and is a Buddhist temple founded around 778 A.D. It was rebuilt in 1633. It enshrines the Buddhist God of Mercy Kannon Bostatsu. It's quite a hike up steep streets just getting to the entrance, and then a good climb up stairs set into the hill. Once at the top, the view over looking Kyoto is beautiful.
I posted briefly about The Golden Pavilion, Rokuon-Ji Temple, but wasn't able to post pics. There are some here. The gold on the building is real, but was restored in 1987.
Ryoanji Temple, the most famous zen
temple in Japan, I too wrote about but didn't get any pics posted. Again, this wasn't as spectacular as the Kennin-Ji Temple for Michi and me, but still a beautiful zen site. As I said before, I'm pretty sure Ryoanji Temple is featured in Baraka. For those of you who haven't seen the movie - RENT IT! Ryoanji was built in the 15th century. Its rock garden measures only 5x10 meters, and is reported to be unique in that no greenery surrounds it. The 15 rocks placed through out are suppossed to signify something unique for everyone.
Other Corrections:
The two friends of Michi who went out with us on Saturday are Reiko and Iku, not Izu. Sorry Iku! And the BBQ portion of our meal that night was not Koreon Barbeque as I originially thought, but just some Japanese bbq, that is often enjoyed as part of a course during a meal.
Sunday:
Later in the afternoon, we got out of the house, and headed back to Harajuku to see if we could catch a glimpse and get some pics with the Harajuku girls. The day was dying down by the time we got there, but it
Ryoanji-Temple
famous zen rock garden was still buzzing with lots of tourists. We were able to grab a couple shots of some the costumes the Harajuku girls wear. Although I don't know if they'd call it a costume. It's their way of dress, and they're out to be seen. We also took a stroll through a nearby park (Yoyogi Park), and after some relaxation there it was on to Shibuya.
Shibuya is adjacent to Harjajuku and on the other side of the park. This is another extravangant, crazy, busy busy busy retail and entertainment district. The main intersection is featured in Lost in Translation - where Scarlet Johannsen is sipping some coffee looking out on the square, and you see tons of people in the crosswalks below, and a huge digital advertisment with a dinasour walking across the face of a building. I belive these crosswalks are also in Baraka, during the time-lapse segment on city density/population. I was glad to be there on a Sunday evening when things weren't too packed. It was still really busy, but tolerable. Me and huge crowds don't mix well.
We wandered off on a side street and stumbled upon a BBQ chicken place. AMAZING! The food
was soooooo good, and another local spot we were lucky enough to try. A bit cramped and smoky, but the food was worth it. We stuffed ourselves and were a bit miserable the rest of the night. Lots of different styles of bbq chicken, prepared Japanese style with various soy sauce blends, skewers, etc. I even tried horse! I realize that may upset some of you, but it was really really delicious. Served Sashimi style, raw, and very tender and rich. Another outstanding meal...
We were back home around 11 Sunday night, and had a great night's sleep.
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Alyson
non-member comment
Fooooood!!!!
Oh my what great food. Being a foodie myself I am very excited about everything you have eaten. It all sounds so good. Enjoy!!!