Day 6: Riding around Kyoto

Today the plan was to get some bikes and ride around northern Kyoto. Using guest services, we found a bike rental place up close to the Golden Pavilion. We took the train to the Nijo Station, where the bike place was. The bike place was supposed to be very close to the station, but we could NOT find it. We were getting frustrated, it was absolutely sweltering today, and all we wanted to do was get some bikes. Well, we never found them, but what we did find was yet another Japanese man on his day off, who was willing to drive us around in return for practicing his English. We took him up on his offer.

His name was Shoe, not sure on the spelling, and he is a professor on linguistics at a local university. He went to college in Pennsylvania for his masters and PhD. He didn't stick with us and actually show us the places we wanted to go, but he did drop us off and give us enough time to see the places. We ended up seeing the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji), the temple Ryoan-ji and another buddhist temple. We wanted to see the Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji) but we didn't have time, they close at 4pm.

Honestly, today was one of the least productive of all of the days we have had here, but it was still a nice day.

Our first stop was the Golden Pavilion. It was built in 1397 as a retirement villa for a shogun, and was converted into a temple by his son. The temple is actually covered in gold lacquer and gold leaf. Like many places in Japan, the Golden Pavillion burned and was rebuilt, however, it survived all of the typical causes: civil war, World War II, and a few centuries of using fire to light things, and was burnt in 1950 by a monk, who was obsessed with the pavillion. So it was rebuilt in 1955.

It was still well worth the visit, it was beautiful, but smaller than I thought it would be. The pavillion was only one small part of the grounds, they were actually pretty expansive. The temple leaders were smart enough to profit off of the tourist attraction, charging 400 yen a piece to enter the grounds.

We started on a nice walkway towards the temple grounds




Now we pay before we go through the gates
















What retirement villa is complete without a dock?
















After the Golden Pavillion we went to the nearby Ryoan-ji temple. This temple was built in 1450 and is well known for it's famous rock garden. It is so well known that it is actually a World Heritage Site. The temple was very beautiful and peaceful.















There is no explanation behind the meaning of the garden. You are encouraged to sit and form your own opinions of what the position of the rocks mean. To me, I feel the garden signifies how life is random and unpredictable, but that is why it is so beautiful.












We had to take our shoes off


They used these bamboo sticks and rope to shape how the trees grew. Trees were being held up, and branches were being forced in different directions all over the grounds. I think of it a lot like life-sized bonzai trees


This clay wall (in the background of the rock pictures) is made from heating the clay in oil. Over time, the oil seeps through the clay and makes the wall an artform of its own
















We just drove past this Shinto Shrine, maybe we should have gone inside, I guess it is actually pretty famous :/




HUGE Torri


Another 1 series, I want one bad


This is the last of the temples we went to, I'm not sure what the name is of it. We went there because it was open later than most of them, 6pm, many close at 4 or 5 pm. It wasn't as nice as the first two, but it was smaller and not crowded




















These pigeons were super tame, you can get so close to them. I mean, if you're into that stuff.


















We took a cab back to the hotel, and got to go through the crazy taxi bay we watch from our window. That in itself was an exciting experience. Cab drivers are crazy in this city.