Kyoto - from the north to the south

The next three days I was about to spend in Kyoto with my boyfriend, who just joined me. Smarter about mistakes I made on the first day, I prepared a very thorough plan on what to visit. I left some best (apparently) attractions for his arrival, because I wanted him to see them too. 

I concluded that on the first day, we should still stay in Higashiyama, which was close to our hotel. The ambitious plan contained a walk from the Northern to the Southern Hihashiyama, with visits in the main attractions. Finding directions in Kyoto was pretty easy, as in most parts of the city, a public wi-fi was available.

Number one of today was Ginkoku-Ji, also known as the Silver Pavilion - a Zen temple, which is inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List. Actually the Silver Pavilion is only part of the complex, as it consists also of other buildings, and of course the garden :) It was full of people, however visiting Japanese temples is very easy and very organized - all the paths are clearly indicated, the directions are shown and it is impossible to move back. So everyone has to be focused on admiring the beauty of the temples, otherwise a new ticket will need to be purchased :)

After leaving the Ginkoku-Ji, we entered the Philosopher's Path which was heading us towards the south. This two kilometers longpath follows a canal which is lined by plenty of cherry trees. I could only imagine how beautiful it could have been a month earlier :)

On the way we passed by the Honen-In Temple - highly recomended by Lonely Planet - in fact (IMO) a nice and peaceful place, but nothing really spectacular. I could though understand that some people love it for its calm and mysteriousness. 

Next one on our list was Nanzen-Ji, which is one of the most important Zen temples in all of Japan. In fact it's not just one temple, but a complex of several subtemples. The central grounds are free of charge, however each subtemple requires a ticket.

I really liked this temple, with is great, majestic wooden San-Mon gate (it was possible to climb to the gate's top, from where there's a view over the city, but in my condition I did not feel like), beautiful Hatto (Dharma Hall) with some very impressive fresks (?), but most importantly with the Hojo - Nanzenji's main hall (ticket 500 yen) containing the Zen rock garden and the beautiful paintings on the sliding doors.

Obligatory slippers ;-)

The plan of today was much more ambitious, but since we were becoming quite tired, but most importantly because of the approaching rain, we decided to visit one last temple - Kiyomizu Dera. The walk toward the temple was quite long, and also at some point up the hill, but it was only a pleasure to walk through the narrow streets of lovely Gion :)

On the way, Marijn got fascinated with the automates selling drinks ;)

Kiyomizu Dera - meaning Pure Water Temple - is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. It is a buddhist temple, which was founded in the eight century, but its current contruction dates to the seventeenth century.

Despite the rain, which was growing every minute, the temple was very crowded - so different feeling than in the peaceful Nanzen-Ji! So different, also because it was so bright and colorful! Completely different from everything I've seen so far in Japan.

Kiyomizu Dera is composed of several buildings with the impressive wooden stage - built without use of nails! Inside the main hall, there's a small statue of the Kannon.

Just behind the main hall, a few steps up, a shrine called Jishu which is dedicated to the deity of love and matchmaking can be found. In front of it, two big stones, placed 18 meters apart from each other, attract dozens of young people, who were trying to assure themselves luck in love while walking from stone to stone with closed eyes. As the real "love shrine", in Jishu visitors could ask different gods for luck and prosperity in love (and buy fortunes).

A few minutes walk down another pagoda and while still continuing the descent (this time towards the main hall), we see the Otowa Waterfall. Visitors line up to drink water from the waterfalls' three streams in order to assure themselves longevity, succes at school and love.

 Although we did not visit everything what was planned on that day, we still managed to see quite a lot, we visited some of the most beautiful places of Japan. The very heavy rain stopped our visiting, but tomorrow is another day ;-)