Japan 2006 - Part 3

Kyoto

We stayed in Kyoto for five nights, visiting a couple of temples there, making a brief trip to Osaka for a few hours, and a day trip to Kanazawa. Due to one day when it rained all day, we didn't fit in our intended day trip to Nara.

Kyoto railway station, a rather colossal structure with about 13 levels and high walkways between sides.





A stairway to Heaven maybe? If that's too hard, just ride the escalator instead.



The Philosophers' Path in the north-eastern temple district.



Another small shop selling food and souvenirs.



The Genkaku-ji temple from the main building. All the grey stuff is raked sand.



The same temple from up the hill a bit.



And the hill-side above the temple. Most of the green area is actually moss, not grass.



A small side road into houses near the temples.



And more of the Philosophers' Path.



Yet more blossoms.



And, to borrow from Monty Python, more f**king blossoms!



The Chionin temple, in the rain.



Another part of the same temple, in the same rain.



A water trough and ladles, as found in most shrines and temples. I don't know much about the religions, but there seems to be some ritual of splashing water around with the ladles when visiting these places.



Inside the main temple building of the Chionin temple.



A view from the verandah of the main building.



The entry gate from out on the street. It had mostly stopped raining by this time (this was as we were leaving).



The Yasaka shrine, near the Chionin temple (but not part of that temple).



Another ritual here, where the person tosses in a small coin, makes a wish, shakes the rope to ring the bell at the top, and then claps twice. This ritual is performed at many shrines, big and small.



A torii gate in the shrine area. Torii gates tend to either be painted orange, like the one in Miyajima, or left as plain concrete. I think the painted ones are mostly made of wood.

Osaka

We only made a brief trip to Osaka for a few hours one Sunday, as my wife wanted to visit a flea market there.

Scouring for bargains at a flea market. This one's in the south-western outskirts of the city at a place called Cosmosquare.

Kanazawa

Kanazawa is a couple of hours odd by express train through the mountains, near the western coast. Its most famous feature, that we went to see, is Kenroku-en garden, listed as one of their top three gardens (along with Koraku-en garden in Okayama).

Views inside Kenroku-en garden.





As you can see, the water is a murky grey, like dirty dish water, and as you would expect, the home to many large carp. The weather was grey and raining on and off, which may account for the colour of the water.







Some pink blossoms. Most are either white or pink, or some shade in between.





Next to Takayama...