Last night was the first night I'd slept right through until gone 7am since arrival here in Japan and I'm feeling quite happy about that.
After breakfast we hopped on a subway down to Kyoto station then an overland train to Arashiyama. Here we went to the Tenryu temple and walked around the inside of the buildings looking out over the gardens. By the time we'd finished this we realised we'd have to head over to Saihoji before getting to wonder the gardens of Tenryu. Luckily we knew that they would be both on the way back and still open later in the day.
To get into Saihoji you have to book in advance, by written correspondence apparently, and the tour company had done this for us. Unfortunately we had not brought the reservation card with us, but the monk at the gate managed to find their copy of the card with my name on it, with my passport to hand confirming I was me, we were let in. I do now recall being shown the card for the visit on arrival at Narita, but it was a bit of a blur at the time and everything was left in the 2nd folder of information we had been given.
Once inside we were seated on the floor in the temple with a small table and a calligraphy brush and ink to the side. We were to trace the kanji characters of a buddhist sutra (prayer) out onto the paper provided. I started out trying to be as neat as possible but soon realised that it was going to take me all day. I managed to keep mostly neat, once I'd worked out the directionality of my brush strokes to get the right shapes for the characters. I was planning to get a photo of Rolf painting some characters, but photography wasn't allowed in the temple itself. Therefore he is in the blossom of a tree just outside.
The temple is also known as moss temple, for the moss gardens surrounding it. After a brief lunch of noddles we hopped on a bus and returned to the gardens of Tenryu temple. It started raining briefly (for the first time since we've been in the country) while we were in the gardens, but that didn't last for long. To date we've needed sun ream more than rain coats, although that is forecast to change on Wednesday.
This evening we heading back into town and went in search of somewhere to eat from the rough guide book. After failing to locate the place we were after, we stopped in a small cafe like eatery tucked in a large arcade of shops. The food was simple but quite filling, exactly what I was after. We then walked through to the large gate in the Gion area of the city before heading back to the street we'd visited a couple of days before, where the geisha can sometimes be found and onwards, back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we head out of town again to two nearby villages. I'll let you know how that goes!
After breakfast we hopped on a subway down to Kyoto station then an overland train to Arashiyama. Here we went to the Tenryu temple and walked around the inside of the buildings looking out over the gardens. By the time we'd finished this we realised we'd have to head over to Saihoji before getting to wonder the gardens of Tenryu. Luckily we knew that they would be both on the way back and still open later in the day.
To get into Saihoji you have to book in advance, by written correspondence apparently, and the tour company had done this for us. Unfortunately we had not brought the reservation card with us, but the monk at the gate managed to find their copy of the card with my name on it, with my passport to hand confirming I was me, we were let in. I do now recall being shown the card for the visit on arrival at Narita, but it was a bit of a blur at the time and everything was left in the 2nd folder of information we had been given.
Once inside we were seated on the floor in the temple with a small table and a calligraphy brush and ink to the side. We were to trace the kanji characters of a buddhist sutra (prayer) out onto the paper provided. I started out trying to be as neat as possible but soon realised that it was going to take me all day. I managed to keep mostly neat, once I'd worked out the directionality of my brush strokes to get the right shapes for the characters. I was planning to get a photo of Rolf painting some characters, but photography wasn't allowed in the temple itself. Therefore he is in the blossom of a tree just outside.
The temple is also known as moss temple, for the moss gardens surrounding it. After a brief lunch of noddles we hopped on a bus and returned to the gardens of Tenryu temple. It started raining briefly (for the first time since we've been in the country) while we were in the gardens, but that didn't last for long. To date we've needed sun ream more than rain coats, although that is forecast to change on Wednesday.
This evening we heading back into town and went in search of somewhere to eat from the rough guide book. After failing to locate the place we were after, we stopped in a small cafe like eatery tucked in a large arcade of shops. The food was simple but quite filling, exactly what I was after. We then walked through to the large gate in the Gion area of the city before heading back to the street we'd visited a couple of days before, where the geisha can sometimes be found and onwards, back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we head out of town again to two nearby villages. I'll let you know how that goes!
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