There are over 1600 temples in Kyoto, and today, allow me to take you into two temples. We visited one during the day, and another one just as the sun was going down, to see the evening illuminations in the temple garden.
This is the Kinkakuji Temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion. It is one of the most famous temples in Kyoto, and it attracts thousands of people every single day.
Formally known as Rokuonji, the Golden Pavilion is a Zen temple whose top two floors are covered in gold leaf, thus, the name Golden Pavilion.
Entrance fee here is Y400 and I was shocked at the number of tourists that go- it was so crowded there is no way to enjoy the beautiful view.
The temple was built as the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and according to his will it was later converted into a temple after his death.
The grounds are not extensive. Once you go in, you see one or two other buildings, and then you stand before the Golden Pavilion, try to squeeze into the crowds to be able to take a decent picture, and then you have no choice but to leave and give way to other people waiting for their turn.
The path was one way, so you just have to keep moving to get away from the crowds. This was the stairs going down towards the exit already.
The building does look good, but other temples have more extensive grounds, like the Nanzenji and they don't charge as much.
Anyways, I was able to take some nice pictures, so I guess the entrance fee was worth it. Not sure when it gets less crowded. It was not a nice experience at all.
That is why I was most appreciative of the peace and quiet we experienced when we went to Minoo Park. That was a relaxing place.
I took pictures of the scenery we passed as we walked, but there was not much to look at.
The only place to really is the Golden Pavilion and that's it.
To go to Kinkakuji, we took the Kyoto City bus from Hankyu Kawaramachi station. Again the day pass for the buses is very practical if you are visiting several sites. If you are not sure where to go, the people at the tourist information are very helpful and they provide bus information as well as city maps.
The pond on the other side of the pavilion. Now we say goodbye to Kinkakuji and visit the Chion-in Temple.
We visited Chion-in temple on the first day we went to Kyoto, and Kinkakuji on the second time we visited.
Chion-in is the head temple of the Jodo sect of Japanese Buddhism, and the temple has spacious grounds and large buildings.
This is the Sanmon Gate, the temple's main entrance, is located alongside the road between Maruyama Park and Shoren-in temple.
Standing 24 meters tall and 50 meters wide, the Sanmon Gate is the largest wooden gate in Japan and dates back to the early 1600s, so it is quite old.
The entrance to the grounds though is a set of stairs on the side. Entrance fee is Y150.
Chion-in temple is famous for its evening illuminations, and that's what we were curious about, and it was quite pretty as well.
We went in just as the sun was going down, so we had the perfect time to witness the trees and the garden lit up. There was not a lot of people as well, so we enjoyed our time here.
We explored the grounds for maybe about an hour to see what there was to see.
There was a place where workshops about making Japanese paper crafts was taught.
This is the Yuzen garden located beside the Sanmon gate. This garden was designed in modern times.
In one part of the garden was a weeping cherry tree which had almost all of its branches cut down but was still full of flowers on the branch that it had left.
I took this picture that overlooks downtown Kyoto, the Gion district on our way up to the other buildings on the upper side.
The Seishido Hall is the oldest building on the temple grounds, dating back to 1530.
Most temples have beautiful gardens and are open to the public. Some charge fees, others are free, so just do your research and choose which ones to visit.
Some are super crowded, others are not. So it really is up to the time of day and year you go that determines whether you get to enjoy it or not. If you like crowds, I guess it doesn't matter.
From Chion-in we walked back to the train station and traveled back to Osaka where we were staying. These are just a couple of temples we visited, and we saw the contrasting views and different experience. Stay tuned!
You can read about the other places we visited here.
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