Kyoto has lots of temples and shrines. Today I saw 5 of them!

Woo, long day! It was plenty wonderful, though, and woo boy, my photo taking did not slow down with visiting 4 temples and also a shrine where tons of little girls were walking around in kimonos. (Photos from today here)

First of all, the day started with an absolutely amazing breakfast, which I'm sorry to say I don't have photos of. But it was a great salad, some tasty tofu with pretty flowers stuck in the small dome of it, the most amazing fruit, homemade yogurt, delicious coffee, and homemade bread (first that I've had since I'm been here). It was so beautiful and tasty, I wanted to savor it for a long time. I can't wait to see what they have tomorrow!

Soon after, Kaori (coworker Mikako's sister) showed up to be a gracious tourguide of the area. She lives in Osaka but had arranged a day's outing to many sites. And then Marc joined us because he happens to be visiting the area at the same time. So the three of us set out, taking the bus and walking throughout the day.

Started off in Ryoanji Temple, with its very famous rock garden. It's supposed to be very meditative, but with such a big crowd, it was hard to feel peaceful. I got some good shots, even though it didn't seem like it at the time. There were also some great buildings on the temple site itself, so that kept me busy, too.





My first literal GASP of the day happened once we were past the gate and turning the first corner to see the Kinkakuji Temple. OH MY GOD, the thing is covered in leaf gold and on this bright day it glimmered in the sun and was just a shining spectacular jewel. So beautiful and impressive. So, of course, I have a million photos of it. And then with the leaves changing, the rest of the site was also gorgeous (and this was true everywhere).













After that we went back downtown where Kaori had arranged a place for lunch. We got to have teoke bento. It's a delicious mix of food served in a small pail, and it's not only tasty, but incredibly beautiful, too. I love eating here. It's such an experience!



From there we walked over to the Heian-Jingu Shrine, which is bright orange! But even with the amazingly cool side buildings (with their towers), the best part was that today was part of the celebration of the year where 3 and 7 year-old girls, and 5 year-old boys dress up in kimono and get blessings. OH MY, how cute were all those little children? And there were many gorgeous kimonos on women around, too! I was snapping quickly so many of my photos of the girls are fuzzy, but still good enough to make you say, AWWWWWWWWWW!











And then it was on to Nanzenji Temple, which I really enjoyed the setting of. The forest was gorgeous, especially with the trees. And the somewhat imposing buildings were offset by the beautiful setting. Also, they have a red brick aquaduct! It's pretty darn cool. And finally, the best part of this entire site is it's zen-inspired garden. The water and trees and layout were so beautiful that I couldn't stop sighing with contentment. I really did not want to leave. I could just sit in that place for hours and days on end and be perfectly happy down to my core. My pictures cannot do it justice at all.











And if that weren't enough... after a brief coffee break, and saying goodbye to Kaori since she needed to return to Osaka, Marc and I went to witness the night illumination of the Eikan-do Temple. I took a couple of photos to prove I was there, but this was not something I could capture with my camera. The lighting under the leaves changing color, the buildings all lit up with flood lights, and the beautiful setting made this quite an experience. And this also gave me my second out-loud GASP of the day, when I saw a well-lit temple building shining up on the hill amongst the trees. It was quite spectacular and something I won't soon forget. I think Marc may have gotten some good shots of it, but trust me, it's worth a trip.





And that's about it. We walked for a while to head back to our respective hotels and now I've been trying to retrace my tracks to name my photos. So many temples, it's easy to confuse the names. :) It actually takes me a ridiculous amount of time to name all my photos and sort them out (far less to actually write, and put the links in here), but I know I'd forget half of what happened if I didn't do it right away!

Right, time for sleep.