For our last day in Kyoto, we visited two temples in Northern Kyoto, returned to the center for lunch at Roan Kikunoi, then went to the western suburbs of Kyoto to visit the Katsura Imperial Villa, before ending the day in Gion.
Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion), a Zen temple with its two upper floors completely covered in gold leaf.
Twenty minutes walk away lies the Ryoanji Temple, with Japan's most famous rock garden.
From the inscription at the entrance: "A rock-and-gravel garden comprising 15 rocks in five groupings, arranged on a bed of white gravel, it is renowned throughout the world as the ultimate example of the karesansui or "dry landscape" style rock garden, in which nature is compressed and given abstract expression within the confines of a very narrow space."
If you are reading this post while planning a trip to Kyoto, here's our
advice: visit Ryoanji first thing in the morning and try to be among the
first visitors at 8a.m in order to sit down and contemplate the rock garden. Otherwise, you will be among a hundred (mostly Japanese) tourists and lots of schoolchildren.
We then visited the temple grounds, with a beautiful park area and pond.
We then took a bus to the center of Kyoto, where we had a reservation for a kaiseki lunch at Roan Kikunoi.
After a delicious lunch, we took a Hankyu train to the Katsura suburb in western Kyoto, where we visited the Katsura Rikyu (Katsura Imperial Villa). While the villa itself is off-limits, we were led by a tour guide through the enchanting gardens, which are a perfect symbol of Japanese aesthetics.
After some shopping and dinner, we went for a walk in Gion (the Geisha district) and along Pontocho for our last hours of sightseeing in Kyoto.
Goodnight Kyoto. You are the most amazing city in Japan!
No comments:
Post a Comment