Osaka, Japan Day 4

Kara @ the Golden Pavilion
Shrine with money strewn about
Some of the confections at that strip mall we saw
Kara trying to make me smile after an argument
Beauty of the pond at the Ryoanji Temple
The crowd on Christmas Eve on our way back at the
train station!



Today was a long day... Kara woke up really early with the hopes of heading to Kyoto early. My body, however, did not want me to move out of bed after all the walking we had done the day before...The differences in our nature would be an area of contention for the rest of the day. It is hard as a husband to do everything your wife wants when your body doesn't want to go do anything. I hope that when we become old that "age" will be an equalizer for us...ha...I don't think that will happen any time soon, not to mention she is younger than me anyway... It didn't help that we were a little confused with trains and such because the "thru pass" we bought brought us to much larger train stations with several options to choose from. We figured it out, but it took some trial and error. Thanks to the pass, however, we did not wast any money when we became confused as to which train to take. To make a long story short we ended up in Kyoto around 12:30 p.m. The train station was rather large upon our arrival so we were a little confused as to how to find a bus to take because we didn't have a Kyoto city map at that point. We saw signs for many bus lines, but without a map we didn't know where they would take us. So we walked a long way and found a strip mall that every shop's soul purpose was bread making or dessert and confections! We wondered around ate some bread and bought a doughnut and headed back into the subway tunnel to find an info booth, we then were given a map of Kyoto and the bus lines on the back. Our "thru pass" works for the bus system in Kyoto as well. Since we arrived late and the bus we took was really slow, we decided to only go to two temples today and to visit more tomorrow using our "thru pass" to the fullest extent and getting our money's worth. Now, to tell you the meat of our two temple visit today.
The first temple we visited after our long bus ride was Rokuon-Ji Temple nicknamed "The Golden Pavilion" (in Japanese the nickname is written as "Kinkaku") It is so named because it is painted gold and sits on a beautiful pond. This temple is probably great to visit if you are Buddhist, but from a tourist standpoint you are simply paying for a photo opportunity of the Temple... you are not even allowed to go inside of it. It was very beautiful, but it seemed a slight waste of Yen as a tourist. I didn't even really learn much about it. The only thing I could learn about the temple was from the English handout they gave us at the main gate. The temple has an ancient tea house called "Sekka-tei" and as you exit the complex you can observe a hall named Fudo-do, which is dedicated to the God of Fire. A stone is there representing the god who is enshrined as a guardian the name of the god is Fudo-myoo or Acala. There were a few shrines you could give money too, perhaps for good luck, people would aim for the metal bowl in front of the shrines.
The second temple was much more interesting as a tourist, it was called Ryoanji Temple. This temple is within a long walk of the Golden Pavilion. We walked to it even though it took a good 20-30minutes. This particular temple used to be called "Oshidoridera," which in Japanese means "Temple of Mandarin Ducks." We saw two ducks while over looking Kyoyochi Pond (which is gorgeous and in the summer must be even more beautiful). The nice thing about this temple is that as a tourist you can go in to the main building at the temple complex. The main building for this temple was called "Kuri" and within its walls exists a famous tea-room called "Zoroku," which is closed to the public. They didn't say why it was closed to the public, but I believe it has to do with the delicate wood and tapestry within the room as it has a religious significance to the animal the tortoise (which is what Zoroku means), which is the symbol of Genbu, the God of the North. Kuri also contains a Zen rock garden containing perfect lines out of white sand and 15 rocks. They say the longer you look at it the more one may become enlightened. This temple had beautiful gravel walk ways and would have been really beautiful in the spring and summer, but was still really beautiful. There was also a wash basin that had some historical significance. The reason it was so beautiful was the meticulous care of the property, the trees and bushes shaped by man to bend certain ways, and the lake with benches all around the walk way to take your time and enjoy the beauty of the grounds.
Tomorrow Kara and I will go back to Kyoto and instead of exploring the western side of Kyoto, we will explore the eastern side and get back to you with what we find. I hope you enjoy following along! This is Grant, Signing Off.