Spring 2011 Osaka & Kyoto Trip Days 6, 7, and 8:

We spent the final two and a half days of this trip in Kyoto, and during that time we did five major touristy things - three on the first day, and one each for the following two.  Kyoto has dozens of shrines and temples, more than you could or would want to see in a week, but we found that three of the most famous temples were within easy walking distance of each other in the northwest of the city, and decided to go see those, figuring three temples is about how many we were interested in seeing anyway.

Kinkaku Temple was the first of the three we visited.  This temple is famous for the Golden Pavilion, which is an old residence of a retired Shogun which is covered top to bottom in gold leaf.  I believe that was done after he died and the grounds were donated to the monks.  Anyway, it is very shiny indeed, and the sun was out, so we took a bunch of pictures, viewable as always on Flikr.  While the temple buildings were nice, the pavilion is definitely the main attraction and there isn't much else on the grounds.

They cleverly put the admissions gate far enough out that you can't see the pavilion until after you pay.

Once inside though, you can't miss it

The gold leaf does glow in the sun rather impressively

Ryoan Temple is supposed to have one of the best, possibly the best Japanese Zen rock garden in the world.  They have certifications from UNESCO saying pretty much that and are not afraid to toss around superlatives in their brochures.  Here's what Ana thought about their special rock garden:

If this was the pinnacle of the craft, we couldn't see it.  Supposedly, this was laid out with supreme care and oodles of deeper meaning, but I don't think they chose very interesting rocks (most of them are very small) and the placement, setting, etc. just did not leave us feeling like the whole thing was done by people who were paying attention.  I guess we're Philistines, or else maybe the emperor has no clothes. I'll put up some more pictures here and see if anyone rises to this rock garden's defense. 

I guess the raking of the small stones is pleasing, but overall...eh. 

Bottom line: it's famous and we saw it, but we don't know why.

On the plus side, they had these poofy conifers in their outer gardens that Ana thought were totally wicked.  I believe the Suess-inspired shape is cultivated by cutting the tree off at intervals and letting it regrow.  Most of them have two or more green areas separated by expanses of smooth, branch-less trunk.

Ninna Temple is very old indeed, having been founded in 888AD, and is the biggest of the three we visited, though it doesn't have a "hook" the way the other two do.

Pagoda...check.

Enormous temple gate...check.

Cherry trees growing branches right out of the ground - the temple cultivates a breed that does this

That's all one tree - the branches off the ground are supported. Pretty nifty!

I did enjoy taking a look at some of the very ornate temple buildings.

Walking through temple buildings

The next day we contemplated going on a trip out of the city to see a castle in Hikone, but decided we'd rather have a less full schedule and a more full wallet and took a much easier day.  We went to the Imperial Palace Gardens.  Now, I'm pretty sure my parents went there before us, and they'd mentioned not being allowed to go through the part they really wanted to see.  We checked the internet and it confirmed that some sections of it are off limits, but said that most of it was open.  What they don't mention is that the parts that are open look like this:

Truly a delight for fans of extremely broad crushed stone boulevards.  There are a few small gardens and relatively pleasant places tucked away inside the grounds, which are very large, but apparently all the good stuff is behind walls, with guards on the doors.  We felt a little lead on - I mean, why name it Imperial Gardens and put it on all the signs, when nobody can see the big ones?

One of the smaller ones

Luckily for us, we hadn't had to expend much effort to get there, and it was a really nice day, so we had a decent walk, took some pictures, and then went back to the hotel and took a nap.

One of the big things that Ana wanted to do in Kyoto from the beginning has been to go to one of the large temple bazaars.  These bazaars were originally something to do with pilgrimages to the temple, but over several hundred years they got pretty commercial, and they're a good place to go looking for Japanese crafts, antiques, just plain stuff, and no small quantity of junk.  The biggest one is on the 25th of each month, and this trip had been carefully constructed to allow us to attend the event just before we headed back to work.  I hadn't thought that the bazaar sounded like that much fun, but once we got there, saw what was being offered, and started to take in the size of the thing, I started wishing they had the same deal back in Kanazawa.  It was awesome. 

The bazaar went for blocks in all directions around the temple - people get up very early indeed to claim a place to set up shop

It was kind of like a giant yard sale, except that all the stuff was Japanese and some of it was pretty old.  For sale was stuff like ceramic and wood plates and bowls, cloth for kimono or other garments, all kinds of dried fruits and vegetables and other food stands, old tools, vases, lots of old iron tea kettles, scrolls, fans, alongside used electronics, furniture, jewelery, and probably all kinds of things I'm forgetting.  I had expected that Ana would spend all or nearly all of the money there, but she didn't find anything that impressed her enough to buy it and I bought four different things.  

I ended up getting two gorgeous wooden plates, one with a glowing clear lacquer from an antique shop and one with a finish the likes of which I've never seen before from the craftswoman who made it.  Most of the wood grains were polished over to be charcoal colored, but in two areas the wood was polished to what appears to be a natural and brilliantly red cedar color, then clear-coated.  I managed to not buy anything the first time we passed her stand, but I had to go back and get something later - I'd have regretted it otherwise.  I also got one ceramic bowl that I liked the glazing on that was only about a dollar, and a rhinoceros figurine for the collection.

We ended up staying much longer at the bazaar that we thought we would want to, and had to rush back to the hotel to make our check-out time.  We made it with time to spare, though, thanks to a conveniently timed bus, which pretty much wrapped up the trip, as after that we took the train back to Kanazawa to get settled back in before the new semester started.