So here we go... lets see how much of this I can remember, and how much Wikipedia can help pad out my storytelling.
Our first stop in Kyoto was a really nice tofu restaurant called Nanzenji Junsei, which is nearby Nanzenji Temple. I will freely admit that I am not a massive fan of tofu normally speaking but this place made some truly amazing stuff. I highly recommend their baked tofu. And just because its such a fancy place they even had their own Koi pond. Pretty right?
It feels odd to me to be starting a blog entry with pictures from a restaurant, but the place was just so pretty and traditional that I took a lot of pictures there haha.
So after a tasty lunch we first visited Nanzenji Temple, built in 1264 by Emperor Kameyama, and its site was selected because it was the Emperor's favorite place for natural beauty.
After some time the Emperor became a monk following the faith of chief priest Daiminkokushi, and so he donated his villa as a Zen temple in 1291. (forgive the laziness I am literally copying this from the tourist pamphlet I found in my suitcase... that's what passes as research today, checking a suitcase)
In Kyoto there is a system for five great temples (Kyoto Gozan), this temple is not one of those five, instead it presides over them. And it has since its establishment. In 1386 a new system was declared with Nanzenji at the top in its own category as "First Temple of The Land"
These photos are at the Hattō, which is basically one of the gates.
And this very dark room was inside the Hōjō, I think
After that we went to visit a little more cheerful shrine, which also acts as a very busy marketplace and social hot spot.... this is the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is the head shrine of Inari the kami (spirit) of foxes. Inari specifically encourages agriculture, industry, general prosperity and success. And was the patron for sword-smiths and merchants.
This place was really vast and basically covers most of a mountain, so I thought I should include a map for your perusal.
Here you can see a Torii, these are a type of gate designed to signify that you are crossing into a sacred space.
So then why here are there lots of these gates? This is common to Inari shrines because people who have been successful in their life like to donate a Torii to thank Inari. The name of the donator is normally inscribed on the Torii.
Once you walk through several hundred of these gates you arrive at the Inner Shrine, here you can receive various blessings, try to win wishes and there are some merchants around.
We did not explore the whole shrine since it is basically an entire mountain and we were running out of time, so then we drove to the Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion), which has the official name Rokuon-ji (Deer Garden Temple)... but I think people are just excited about the Golden Pavilion so they call it that ;)
And so they should be look how pretty that thing is!
Interesting thing about the pavilion is that it actually mixes three different architectural styles for each level: shinden, samurai and zen.
Around the pavilion are of course beautiful gardens, and a really nice walk around the pond.
And of course many opportunities to try to have a wish fulfilled (if you can aim a Japanese coin at a bowl, this may be a new career path for beer pong players)
By this stage in the day I was just taking pictures of anything pretty or hilarious... as evidenced below.
I honestly have no idea what my next post will be.... maybe I will see how many photos of a Star Trek convention I can get ;)
Update: the answer to that was about three..... and a serious hangover.
Further reading:
Nanzenji Junsei (great tofu)
Nanzenji Temple
Fushimi Inari Shrine
Torii
Inari Ōkami
Kinkaku-ji
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