Kyoto Day 3

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Today I had a pleasurable time exploring more of Kyoto’s temples, shrines, and gardens. My first stop was Nanzen-ji (“South Zen Temple”) which has a lush “stroll garden” with ponds and overhanging maples. The fall colors are just starting and I’m sure this will be even more spectacular in another month. There is a koi pond nearby with huge carp in it. This young tourist was fascinated by them - although it was plain he didn’t care much about Zen gardens in general. There is a famous walking path called The Philosophers Path that leads from Nanzen-ji north to another famous temple: Ginkaku-ji (“The Silver Pavilion Temple”). There were workmen there touching up the patterns in the sand garden. The conical mound of sand in the background is meant to represent Mt Fuji. The pavilion behind that is not, in fact, covered in silver. Apparently that was the plan when it was built in 1482, but somehow they haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. I believe that the pavilion is pretty much just there to be admired these days, but these temple complexes are working Buddhist sites and occasionally one does get to see monks. My last stop of the day was to Fushimi Inari-Taisha which is a huge shrine complex dedicated to the Shinto deity in charge of the rice harvest. As you can imagine, this is an important job in Japan, so over the years many donations have been made and those donations largely go to create tori. There are hundreds of these red gates lining the paths up the (steep) hillside and it is a memorable experience to hike up through them.

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