Kyoto - Day 3

Phew! That was a big day yesterday. Now that the tour was over, we had to say goodbye to some friends.

Those of us remaining in Kyoto for an extra day decided to venture to the outskirts of the city. Jeff took the opportunity to make a new friend on the bus.

First on the agenda was Tenryu-ji temple and surrounding bamboo forest. It features on of the oldest landscape gardens in Japan, remaining relatively unchanged since the 14th century. It is known as the Sogenchi garden.

After walking around the grounds, we headed into the bamboo forest.

A short while later, we found ourselves down by the riverside and beside a great little restaurant for lunch. We stopped in for slushies, soba and to take in the view.

Refueled we hopped the bus and headed north. Our destination was Ryoanji  temple to see the rock garden. It was simple and remarkable. It is only 25 m x 10 m but was completely different from the other gardens we had seen. There are 15 carefully placed rocks with moss in white gravel in front of a wood fence. It is said to have been created at around 1500 by a highly respected Zen monk. Each rock sculpture is supposed to have its own meaning. One is a mother tiger leading her cub across the river or something. I didn't see it but I thought the garden was beautiful and tranquil anyhow.

The temple also houses a unique washbasin of stone called Tsukubai. The inscription reads "I learn only to be contented."

My favourite part of the temple was the large pond outside called Kyoyochi pond. There are Lillypad strewn throughout the lake, a small island, and lots of waterfowl and flowers.

(Note the crane guarding his treehouse)

We were making our way around to see the Golden Pavilion, but decided to stop in at a local art gallery to see some works on black and white at change and temple  paintings. As the museum was about to close, we got rushed in by the admissions person however, as soon as we made our way upstairs to the exhibit, the curator took a significant amount of time to tell us about the works on display.

Next, we stopped in at a little gallery that did woodblock printing. The pictures were lovely and they had an information brochure on how woodblock painting is done. We were a little too late to give it a try ourselves, but enjoy the time in the cool air-conditioned gallery and learning about this traditional art.

Starting the long bus ride back to south Kyoto where our hotel was, we decided to again go for all you can eat sushi. No one to shame us into stopping this time!

This truly was our last night together as friends, as both Peter and I left very early the next morning and with Jeff and Sasha leaving Kyoto the next day. One last campai for all of us before the bromance and budding friendships had to part ways for now.

On that sad note, I headed upstairs to pack for the second leg of my adventure. Tomorrow I'm off to Akajima! Just a short bus ride, plane ride, train ride, ferry ride and bus ride and I'll be there.