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Published: October 30th 2007
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Kinkaku-Ji
It was still beautiful despite the rain. After a lazy Friday morning of hanging out at Starbucks and talking to family I decided I needed to get out and enjoy the day so I headed towards Kinkakuji, the golden temple. Kinkakuji is on the complete opposite side of Kyoto as Yamashina and requires transfering to three different lines to get there. To avoid the added expense I decide to take the subway into Nijo (the center of Kyoto) and walk from there. My plans soon changed as lightening cracked and it started to pour the moment I stepped my foot outside the train station! Still determined to put up with the rain I tried to ask someone what street I was on to get my bearings on the map, but the language barrier made this difficult. After 20 minutes of him trying to help me, I end up following him down the street, took a stop at his house and then continued on our way. Twenty-five minutes later I found myself at a bus stop, sopping wet but with a new friend. To add to the amusement of the day as I was getting on the overly crowded bus the door closed on my head - I knew
Kinkaku-Ji
A view with the pond I should have turned around at the subway station! Even though the outing did not go as planned it was still a memorable day and Kinkakuji was still beautiful despite the weather.
Sunday I headed out the door in search of Daigo-ji, which luckily is on the same subway line as Yamashina. “Go” in Japanese is five, with the name Daigo referring to the five periods of Buddha’s teaching. It also is home to the oldest Pagoda in Japan and the oldest building in all of Kyoto.
Upon entering Daigo-ji, I headed towards the gardens as a funeral procession was making its way through to the temple. It was a really interesting experience, the monks led the way blowing horns which made a sound I can only best attribute to be like an unattractive elephant. When I made my way to the Temple where the ceremony was held the monks were chanting with the mourners repeating, all surrounding a fire. As they marched past me I felt very out of place, but it was nice to see the rest of the ceremony from a distance, I am grateful for the cultural experience. The gardens at Diago-ji were amazing,
Daigo-Ji
The oldest Pagoda in all of Japan probably the best gardens I have seen thus far but unfortunately cameras were not allowed in them. My favorite part of Daigo however was the hike to the upper temple. It was about a fifty minute hike through the mountains, passing shrines along the way. These are my favorite types of temples because they are in the woods and away from the crowds!
Not sure what else to do on Monday I decided I wanted to check out the monkey park I had heard about in Arashiyama. I took a little detour along the way by getting onto an express train instead of a local and went right past my stop the first time. It turned out to be good after all because we went through the mountains and the scenery was amazing. After finally making it to Arashiyama I decided that instead of walking from site to site, I’d rent a bike which turned out to be the best idea I have had for a while. The rental place gave me a pink bike, also known as a Japanese woman’s framed bike. I felt like I was riding a child's big wheel, with my knees to my chest
Daigo-Ji
A view from along the way but I had a blast. There are several temples throughout Arashiyama, but I decided just to ride past them and just take a look from the outside. I’m a little templed out and they get expensive after a while. It was much more fun to tour the neighborhood which is at the base of the mountain and had a nice river running through it. The monkey park was also a good time - just don’t look them in the eyes…
For my last day in Kyoto, I went to Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a shrine originally dedicated to the gods of rice and sake. With the diminished role of agriculture, it now is dedicated to the prosperity of business. The shrine is a 4km path through a mountain which is covered by torii. Businesses purchase the torii for the prosperity of their organization.
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