Yesterday was sunny and warm. Today Kyoto was cool and drizzly, a perfect day to visit Zen gardens. We took a bus to the famed Ginkakuji, also known as the Temple of the Golden Pavillion. Unlike Kinkakuji (Silver Pavillion), this one really is gold plated! By arriving early...on a rainy Tuesday in late April...we missed the large crowds, although buses were starting to pull in.
Another short bus ride took us to Daitokuji, a complex of small, beautiful shrines, gardens, and historic tea rooms. The first was Daisen-in, the most famous. Pictures were not allowed inside.
But Daisen-in contained elegant, exquisitely sculptured rock gardens, justly famous. (Just down the street is Ryoanji, home to the most famous rock gardens. But it is crowded with tourists and loudspeakers blaring "interpretation" in multiple languages means Enlightening is a hard task at Ryoanji. Calvin visited it 10 years ago, but we decided to give it a miss. A good idea--Daisen-in, in my opinion, is superior.) On such a quiet, contemplative day we had the small temple nearly to ourselves. We bought a souvenir picture book and the abbot himself came out and autographed it, transliterating our names into the Japanese syllabary.
Further on in the same complex is Koto-in, surrounded by bamboo forest. Green and mossy, with rain dripping from the limbs of lonely pine trees, it was inexpressively subtle and moving.
Zuiho-in, another small temple, had sand and rock gardens, lovely if not as tightly expressive as Daisen-in. (I'm sure that each temple and garden has its own advocates.)
The morning over, we returned to the Sanjo shopping arcade and had lunch at Musashi, a sushi restaurant. Here the sushi dishes go by on a conveyor belt, and one picks out the items you want to eat. At the end, a waitress counts up the number of dishes to get your bill.
A visit to the shops around the Kyoto Art Museum for some gifts. When you purchase something, the merchants have you draw for a free gift, usually something small. But when we purchased a modest bottle of sake, our prize, surprisingly, was another bottle worth twice as much.
Our final stop was the famed Nishiki food market, where we bought fresh soy-milk doughnuts, hot out of the fryer, and some unagi (broiled eel) and pickled vegetables for an in-room dinner.
I'm sure there will be more news later....
