Had a quick breakfast of bread and tea. Met Raila-chan at Shijo Station at about 7.30am.. We all bought ourselves 2 day passes, one for buses (500yen) and one for subways (600yen). We were supposed to find the correct bus stop for Bus No. 59 that will take us to Ryoan-ji Temple, northwest of Kyoto town center.
Kim-chan was really very 'handy' in the sense that her Japanese was the best among us, and so she became our group's spokeswoman.. :p The Bus 59 that we stopped was actually going back to the bus terminal, but all of us didn't really care. We just treated it as a sight-seeing trip around Kyoto before going to Ryoan-ji Temple..
We reached Ryoan-ji Temple around 5 min past 9am.. The place was quite quiet which suited me just fine.. We walked around the garden outside the Temple and took lots of pictures.. Then we went in.
Here we saw the famous stone garden of Ryoan-ji Temple. The stone garden was wide, so there is no way I could take a photo of all the stones.. There were 5 groups of stones amist the sandy surface.. Those stones are in all different shapes and sizes. The picture beside is my favorite group of stones... We sat down to appreciate the (Zen-ness of the ) stone garden, and to enjoy the shade and breeze the Main Hall had provided... About 9.30am, crowds began to turn up in droves.. and so we left for our next destination, the famous Kinkaku-ji Temple.
Today's itinerary was to visit 6 temples/shrines, all via the Kyoto City Bus. And so we took the bus. Same bus No. 59 but in the opposite direction as the bus passed by Kinkaku-ji Temple before reaching Ryoan-ji Temple.. And boy, the weather was getting hotter by the minute... :o
Being one of the 2 most well-known temple in Kyoto, Kinkaku-ji Temple was crowded with people!! Tourists and locals alike were out to see the famous golden temple of Kyoto...
Looking at the photo on the right, the Temple does lived up to it's name.. The garden and the pond was very beautiful, not to mention that the temple was literally glittering in the sun.. Everyone kept taking photos, at every angle... :) Too bad my camera's zoom isn't as powerful as I would like... There were lots of Caucasian tourists... It was a funny feeling hearing so much English being spoken here in Japan.. :p At the temple, I bought myself (yet) another pendant. Since there wasn't any nice pendant for wishes, I bought one for 'Happiness' (幸).. :)
Then we went back to Shijo Kawaramachi area for our lunch before heading to Ginkaku-ji Temple.. As Raila-chan doesn't eat seafood, and the rest of us wanted to eat sushi, we decided to split up for lunch and then meet up again at 1pm.. We were all famished. The sushi shop was those conveyor-belt typed where you take what you wanna eat.. And so, Chua-san, Kim-chan and me ate 8 plates of sushi, while Alex-san ate 11 plates.. :) 8 plates of sushi costed less than 900yen! That's quite cheap, for Japan's standard..
After lunch, we again took a bus (No.32) to Ginkaku-ji Temple.. After seeing Kinkaku-ji Temple with its magnificent golden aura, it was kinda disappointing to see Ginkaku-ji Temple.. it was..
black!! Not silver as its name suggested.. It seemed that the builder wanted to cover it in silver, but due to unforeseen circumstances failed to do so.. So this temple remained as a 'Work-in-Progress' forever... but comparatively and truthfully, the garden of Ginkaku-ji Temple was much nicer that the garden of Kinkaku-ji Temple.. Lots of cool shades and nice stone paths.. Also, the crowd here is comparative to the crowd in Kinkaku-ji Temple.. Think we spent less than 1 hour here.. :p
We have 3 more temples to visit and we have less than 4 hours left.. The last temple/shrine was Yasaka Shrine which closes at 4pm. There was not enough time for it, so we decided not to go there.. The last two temples/shrines were Nanzen-ji Temple and Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Personally, I wanted to go to Nanzen-ji Temple. Why? I can't really put my finger to it, it was just a feeling.. just like Sanjusangen-do Temple.. I just felt that I had to go there.. So we decided to make a quick stop over at Nanzen-ji Temple before heading to Kiyomizu-dera Temple..
And we all didn't regret that decision... In fact, once there at Nanzen-ji Temple, we had hoped for more time to explore as the compound of Nanzen-ji Temple was HUGE!!
There were lots of gardens, meditation halls, buildings to see.. This building in the photo was San Mon. To get up to the top floor, one has to pay \500. In the end, only Chua-san and me went up. To me, since we came all the way to Kyoto to sight-see, why save that small amount of (comparatively speaking) money and miss out on the scenery?? Ah boy, was that 500yen well-spent.. From the top, the view was magnificent! :) and not to mention the treasure on display inside the Hall, which can only be seen from a small window the size of a A4 paper!
There were lots of unvisited gardens and halls... but we had to leave as the bus would take a while to get us to Kiyomizu-dera Temple and it was almost 4.30pm... In the end, I for one, will definitely go back to Nanzen-ji Temple for a second visit.. :)
We had to walk a long way from the bus stop to get to the Temple.. We reached Kiyomizu-dera Temple slightly after 5pm.. as the Temple closes at 6pm, we had about an hour to explore.. Lots of tourists at the place too.. Think everyone leaves this Temple as the last place to visit as its closing time was one of the latest among all the temples..
I must profess that after seeing so many temples/shrines today, Kiyomizu-dera Temple still didn't fail to amaze me.. The temple's platform was supported by beams of wooden columns and from there one can see the view of Kyoto.. At that time, it was near sunset, thus the view was really beautiful..
There was a shrine within the compound, when prayed at would help one succeed in finding an appropriate love match, but too bad it was already closed when we arrived.. :p And then there was this waterfall [which is have therapeutic properties, and drinking from the three different streams is said to confer health, longevity and success in studies - I only knew about this after the trip.. :p] We queued and drank the water.. Before drinking it, I was expecting some bland tasting water but it wasn't. It was crystal clear and was really tasty and sweet.. I know it's kinda difficult to imagine water being sweet, but it really was.. [I kept wondering which stream did I drink from?? If I knew about these 'properties', I would have drank from all three streams!! ;)]
As none of us were interested in watching any culture shows, the original plan to watch Kyoto Traditional Culture Performance was canned. As Raila-chan's feet was hurting, she decided to have an early night.. So all of us went back to Shijo Station to send her back to her hotel..
But to the 4 of us, the night was still very young.. so we decided to do some window-shopping at around Shijo and Sanjo.. But first we had to have our dinner.. All of us decided that we want to have something good for dinner.. so we went around looking for a not-too-expensive but good restaurant.. then we saw a 店員 giving out flyers for 10% discount and so we went in.. As Alex-san and Kim-chan was very interested in hearing the legend of White Snake and Journey to the West (Saiyuki - 西遊記), I spent the whole duration of the dinner telling stories.. :) When it was time for the bill, we took out the flyer and asked for the 10% discount, the cashier told us, stone-faced, that the flyer was for the restaurant next door!! :D You can imagine how embarrass we were at that time!! We kept laughing when we got out from the restaurant... What a way to end the night.. :) The dinner was a treat by the guys.. Arigatoo!
As the night was (still) young, only 9pm, we decided to have a drink at Starbucks.. This time, Kim-chan treated us each a drink.. Arigatoo!! I ordered Mango Ice-blend.. :) We talked.. somehow the topic turned from France's riot last year to France's immigrant issues to Islam.. And only Alex-san and me were talking.. Chua-san and Kim-chan were listening and soon became bored.. so we all went back to the hotel around 10pm..
And this was what happened on Day 3 of Kyoto Trip..
Click here for the photos I took during the trip...
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