Kyoto Day 3 - temple, temple, temple...

When I got home from Nara, I sat down to kind of chart out what I wanted to see on my last 2 days in town. I unfolded my map and pretty quick I could see that there was too much to do in 2 days. I had to be a little selective. I charted a course, but it was going to be a lot of walking again.

My plan was to go a couple subway stops North and follow the temples southwest until I came to a train station a few stops West of my hotel. As the crow flies it was about 2km, but with wandering around the temples and taking a few wrong turns, I knew it would be a lot longer.

The first stop on my plan was Daitokuji. I walked all around it and it seemed to be closed, so I had to decide whether to wait around to see if it opened or keep moving. Since I didn't see any sign showing when it would open, I decided to move on. On wandered past one of the subtemples, and it was open so I went in. It was a small temple famous for it's tea room, but it also had a big, beautiful garden, and I pretty much had it all to myself.

Next stop was probably the biggest tourist temple in Kyoto, Kinkakuji, the golden pavilion. Famous for having a golden pavilion. It's originally from about 1400, but was burned down a few times since then, most recently and famously in 1950 by a disturbed monk. They rebuilt and slightly improved on the original, replacing all the gold leaf that was mostly gone before it burned. I scraped together enough Japanese to get someone to take this picture.
At the temples, they sell these little fortunes. Usually they monks sell them, but sometimes they have fortune vending machines. I mostly just pass them by, since I can't read much Japanese, but being really touristy, they had English versions. I love the sign on the right. Hard Money, Pay Down!
A woman I talked to back at Daitokuji said that that was the nicest landscape garden, and the best rock garden was at Ryoanji. As luck would have it, it was next on my to-do list. I took off my shoes and put on the visitor slippers and walked in.

It's a pretty little temple, but the real claim to fame is the rock garden. It's about 25m by 10m, and you can only look from the one long side. There were people packed in 2 deep looking at the garden and meditating. It's just white gravel and 15 stones, laid out by a famous painter around 1500. Very beautiful, but sometime I don't really get the Japanese sense of beauty.
Did my 15 minutes of sitting and meditating, but mostly just resting up for the next part of the day.

After Ryoanji was Ninnaji, a big temple complex that dates from the 9th century. Seeing as they mostly build with wood, the original buildings are all gone and most of the buildings there now are from the 17th century. There were more gardens, temples, and a 5 story pagoda. It was probably my favorite temple of day 3.
The plan was to walk south through Myoshinji temple on the way to the train station, but it seemed to be closed. I made a pretty full lap of a pretty large temple wall before I found a way in. It was really only one corner of the temple that it seemed like I could get to, and by then I was pretty tired and didn't want to keep looking for another way in, so I looked around what I could and headed for the station. 250yen and 1 transfer later I was back at the hotel to come up with a night plan.

Plan was to follow the wiki recommendation and go to an okonomiyaki shop on Shijodori and try to find one of the bars they list in the travel guide. I found the okonomiyaki place, and it was exactly what wiki promised: "pleasantly grubby". That seems like the right way to do okonomiyaki. Plus, the name was "Mr. Young Men", but not in a gay way.
Turns out Shijodori is a big, crowded shopping area, and Mr. Young Men is down a covered shopping street just off the main street. They have one of these outdoor malls in Utsunomiya, but this place was way bigger. I walked down the one covered street and then realized that there were more covered streets branching off, maybe 3 or 4, each about 3 blocks long.

After eating and wandering, I found a bar to have a couple drinks at. Unfortunately, it was still early and I was already beat, so it wasn't very exciting. I just had my 2 beers at what I can only describe as the Japanese version of the American version of an Irish pub and headed back around 9:30. Only one day left, and lots to see before I catch my train.