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Published: March 26th 2006
Kinkakuji and the Mirror pond.
Dunno how well this pic will turn out out such a lo res, but at max quality it is spectacular!Not wanting to waste a moment of my dwindling spring break, yesterday I returned to Kyoto (once again with shopping as the primary attraction) and what a contrast it was from the snow of Mount Myoko! Apart from the obvious lack of white stuff everywhere, the biggest difference was the number of American and European tourists floating about! Every second person we walked past in Kyoto was tall, fair skinned and speaking english! This was very strange coming from the english free zone I have been in this week.
One would think that this would be a relief, and a good thing, but to be honest, being a "domestic" tourist in the Japan Alps was much more fun. Sure, it's frustrating to be as literate as a pre schooler and to be limited to communication on a very simple level in Japanese, but the general attitude towards "gaijin" is so different where we are a rarer breed. Around Akakura Onsen, people seemed more interested in us, as people and asked more questions. The fact that we are students, living in Japan, gave us a kind of connection with the local students we encountered. In stark contrast, in Kyoto, the shop
Anyone for tea?
The visitor's teahouse. owners and ticket officers voluntarily spoke to us in english and just expected that we were tourists in Japan for a limited period of time, there to spend our money and be gone! Don't misunderstand me, Kyoto is amazing and beautiful and I have met great people and seen amazing parts of the city, and the Eastern European architecture and yodelling crackling through the speakers on the way up the mountain at the ski resort was slightly odd. However, coming from such an off the beaten track type place, the difference in attitude and reception was obvious to me.
Okay, enough of going all philosophic on all of you! Onwards to some old-Japan decadence: Gold, gold, gold! Jacqui and I punctuated our shopping with a trip to Kinkakuji (the temple of the golden pavilion), finally! It's one of those must see places in Kyoto and yes, it was golden and beautiful. It's a temple over a pond, with gold leaf covering the top two floors, reflected beautifully in the pond.
Random thought to fill up space and make some effort to justify putting a pile of photies on the web: Someone told me that the Japanese prefer not
Close up
Temple of gold... gold leaf, at any rate... to travel around their own country because transport is so expensive! However, I am yet to visit a sightseeing attraction without a throng of local tourists, and Kinkakuji was no different. With so many beautiful places to see, I'm not surprised that the Japanese seem so obsessed with photography!
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