Wawa's Ramblings

Day 2 sightseeing in the morning saw us walking along the Philosopher's Path, a canal lined by cherry trees which leads from Nazenji through Eikando Temple to Ginkakuji.

Eikando Temple has beautiful gardens filled with many maple trees and is one of my favourite sites in Kyoto, mainly because of the captivating autumn colours. The temple is famous for maple leaf viewing in autumn and can get very crowded. Thankfully, it was relatively quiet on the day we were there as it was not the peak of the maple leaf viewing yet. I was truly mesmerized by yellow, orange and fiery red colours of the maple leaves and brought back a couple of leaves as a souvenir (only the ones that had fallen on the ground of course). This temple is definitely worth visiting in autumn and is also open at night during the peak season.

souvenir shop outside the temple

vending machine for Kyoto pins

Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to walk all the way back to Nazenji and back to our hotel before starting our afternoon sightseeing organized by the conference Ji was attending.

Kiyomizudera is the largest and most famous temple in Kyoto. The winding streets leading to the entrance of the temple are lined with shops selling earthenware souvenirs and local ceramics and is called the 'Teapot Lane' .

Kiyomizu-dera (kiyomizu meaning pure water) takes its name from this waterfall, Otowa-No-Taki. The waterfall here is counted among the 10 most famous pure water sites in Japan. Visitors stand beneath the waterfall and drink for health. I wanted to try the health benefits too, but was deterred by the long snaking queue waiting in line.

wooden tablets to write your wishes

Kinkakuji (or the Golden Pavillion) is another main attraction. The entire pavillion except the floor is covered in pure gold leaf. We managed to capture a beautiful shot of the pavillion when the sun was at a perfect angle casting a radiant glow from the temple.

this shot was taken just a few minutes later

Someone once commented that you can never take a bad shot of the golden pavilion. To a certain extent I think it's true but being there at the right time really enhances the pavilion's beauty. We ended the little sightseeing tour with a visit to the Kyoto Handicraft centre.

Labels: japan, kyoto, travel