The weather report was predicting rain this afternoon. So, today was the day to visit places near-by the city. My plan was to visit Kinkaku and Ryoan-Temple, the famous ones. I also decided to utilize buses to move around Kyoto today since I got to used to the city. I look up the sky; it was perfectly blue.

Rokuon-Temple (Kinkaku)
"This is not Kinkaku-Temple" said so in the sign at the entrance of Rokuon-Temple. This has the famous Kinkaku, the gold one. The first thing I saw in the temple was the shining Kinkaku under the morning sunlight. The gold was really gold, and absolutely gorgeous. The Kyouko-Pond was also exquisitely crafted. The name means Mirror-surfaced lake. I could see why they named it that way. The whole garden was designed to re-create a Buddhist paradise in the real world. Exquisite yet dynamic, this was a wonderful garden.

During the nearly 2000 years of Japanese history, there was one time two lineage of emperors stood up and fought each other. This unusual period was called Nan-Boku-Era (South-North-Era), and filled with fighting. The 3rd Shogun of Muromachi-Government, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu finally united Japan in 1370 and created some peaceful time. He created Kinkaku to show off his power. But the temple just got decayed after his death. All the building but Kinkaku had fallen down. Despite its name, the golden plate on the Kinkaku was all gone. Things got even worse after World War II. A priest put fire on the Kinkaku in 1950. Finally, none of the original structure was left. The Kinkaku was rebuild five years after the fire; and in 1987, the golden gild was plated. Today, we can enjoy the Kinkaku as Yoshimitsu saw it more than 600 years ago.

Rokuon-Temple has wide area and many things to see. There was another lake named Onmin-Pond other than Kyouko-Lake. Rikushu-Pine Tree; a bonsai once loved by Yoshimitsu became a real tree which looks like a ship. A small waterfall called Ryumon-Fall. But I remember none of these because the Kinkaku's impression was too strong. Most of the Japanese hesitate the gorgeousness of the Kinkaku. But I can only use wonderful after seeing the real one. You know, gold is gold...

(left) A washbasin looked like a coin. (right) A tunnel of fall colors on the way out, Everybody were stunned for awhile, and took some photos.

Ryouan-Temple
It was only five minutes of bus ride from the Rokuon-Temple to the Ryouan-Temple. Even I have heard of the stone garden. This garden became particularly famous after Queen Elizabeth praised its beauty. The garden was rather small. Only 10m deep and 30m wide (about 30x100 feet). The garden has white small stones spread all over, then put 15 stones and a little bit of mosses. A line of tourists sitting one the side of the garden, and watching the garden as if zen-priest trying to get enlightened. Nobody knows what the garden represents; nor no one knows who made the garde. Some say people tried to save money by not creating ponds or trees. Some imagine this is a style for Zen-Temples which specialized in severe training.

Ryoan-Temple has a lot to see. A nice small back-garden was well-maintenanced and exquisite. A washbasin said to be a present from Tokugawa Shogun with interesting word puzzle. Ryoan-Temple became famous from a smalll garden, but it has a gigantic pond named Kyouyou-Pond. I felt relaxed by watching the big pond particularly after the Zen-garden.

Imperial Palace of Kyoto
The weather was getting worse. So, I headed Kyoto. I took a bus to the Imperial Palace of Kyoto. This is a large area with 450m and 250m (0.3x0.2 miles). Some portion was open to public. It looked more like a city park than a palace. Some old people taking a walk, or some hurried by bicycle. Anybody can see the rest of the Imperial by requesting via mail in prior. I heard the garden was amazing (no wonder it was hidden from public). What I found was a small modern building for souvenir shops and restaurant. I ordered Udon noodle for my lunch. Hmm, it tasted pretty good, and price was cheap as well. I was impressed.

Rozan-Temple
Rozan-Temple is located right next to the Imperial Palace. This is the place where Murasaki-Shikibu wrote the world first novel sometime around 1000AD. The temple displayed some artifacts from that perioed. Personally, I liked this garden best among all of the ones I've seen in this trip. I sat down to enjoy the garden for nearly 30 minutes. It was amazingly unpopular temple. I could enjoy the quietness as well.

Goju-no-Tou in Tou-Temple.

Walking Kyoto
Next was the Hon-noh-Temple in the middle of the city of Kyoto. I was surprised to think that the famous "Incident at Hon-noh-Temple" happened in such a middle of a city. Well, the temple was ordered to move to this location by Hideyoshi. Before that, the temple had a big area surrounded by a moat just like a castle. The entrance was facing Shin-Kyougoku-Street, the busiest street in Kyoto. There was absolutely no image of an old temple and nothing to see. Maybe except the Nobunaga-Museum open for tourists. What if Nobunaga survived the incident and lived 10 more years? Japan could have been a completely different country. A popular question every Japanese asks;

Finally it started to rain. So I went to Kyoto station which has a roof. A extremely modern looking structure appeared in the old historic city of Kyoto. I recalled that I saw this station in the movie "Gamera 3". A big Christmas tree inside the stationn added some seasonal greeting.

Finally it got dark. How about visiting the Tou-Temple (East Temple) which I heard was light-up. This is registered in the World Heritage. After about 20 minutes of walking from the Kyoto station, I saw a nice Goju-no-Tou in the light-up. It looked very nice but I found the temple was closed after dark. I walked around the temple to find a nice photo spot looking over the temple.

Koudai-Temple and Nene's Path at Night
The people of the hotel told me that the Kodai-Temple was beautiful in the light-up. That was my destination tonight. But the temple banned the use of tripod nor mono-pod. I asked for the reason. The priest told me because it might block the flow of the people. Sometime tourists lines up outside of the temple, and police warned the temple couple of times to speed up the flow. Oh I see. I guess I had to give up taking nice photos. So, I had no good photos but the light-up in the Kodai-Temple was wonderful. A mysterious and romantic, this is the place for lovers to visit. The fall-colors were off the peak but the garden made it worse the visit. There was even a stone-garden with a modern-art style light-up.

Hideyoshi's wife named Nene built this Kodai-Temple to calm her husband spirit. She must have walked along this path many times. Today, the city of Kyoto decided to name this street as "Nene's Path", paved it with stones, and lighted it up. Of course this is to attract more tourists. But it was certainly a nice passage to walk at night. It looked even better with a little bit of rain.