Thursday, November 26, 2009

Temples and shrines, and more temples and shrines

As I mentioned in my previous post, Kyoto has more temples and shrines than you can imagine. They're everywhere. Duck into Starbucks and you may very well find a beautiful shrine out back.

Our second day in Kyoto, we decided to walk along the northeast side of town, beginning with Ginkaku-Ji (the Silver Pavillion) and heading south along the Philosopher's Path. We didn't have any particular agenda, so we were free to stop wherever we saw something that intrigued us. My favorite find of the day was a large, hidden cemetery (I have a thing for old cemeteries—it goes back to the vanning days with my dad).

The first group of photos is all from Ginkaku-Ji. After that, I really stopped keeping track of which temple was which.

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These gravel gardens were very large, with walls over a foot high.

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The entrance to the cemetery.

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At one of the smaller temples along the Philosopher's Path.

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At a Shinto Shrine.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It looks like the perfect time of the year to visit. The colours are so beautiful:-) and the cemetery is just amazing.