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Well after a good nights rest, that we apparently needed we set out early to see some sights. We started at Ryōan-ji (The Temple of the Peaceful Dragon) which is a Zen Temple located in northwest Kyoto. Belonging to the Myōshinji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism, the temple is one of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It is thought to have been built in the late 1400s. The garden consists of raked gravel and fifteen moss-covered boulders, which are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder. This was by far one of our favorite places in Kyoto mainly because when you think of a Japanese garden we both seem to picture the rock garden.
After Ryoan-ji we walked up the street to Kinkaku-ji or The Golden Pavilion which was originally built in 1397 to serve as a retirement villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. It was his son who converted the building into a Zen temple of the Rinzai school. The temple was burned down several times during the Ōnin War. The entire pavilion except the basement floor is covered with pure gold leaf. The pavilion functions as a shariden, housing relics of the Buddha. On the roof of the pavilion is a golden fenghuang or "Chinese phoenix". In 1950, the temple was burned down by a mentally disturbed monk; a fictionalized version of the events is at the center of Yukio Mishima's 1956 book The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The present structure dates from 1955.
Due to it being winter in Japan the days seem to go so fast. Before we knew it the day was almost over and we had only made it to two sites in Kyoto which contains numerous. Having our fill of temples for the day we worked our way to Northwest, West Kyoto to walk along the old canals and to check out the entrances of various other temples and shrines. This was a great way to end the day. It was so peaceful walking along the canals which were lined with beautiful homes and shops. We walked until the sun had completely set and we could barely see where we were going due to the lack of lighting and the fact that we were surrounding by nature. We walked by Kiyomizu-dera which is supposed to be an amazing grouping of temples which was actually open at night. However, the line seemed to be about a two hour wait to just get into the site and once again due to our lack of winter clothes we were freezing so we decided to pass. We grabbed a quick dinner and called it a night since we were going to wake up early the next day to head to Hiroshima.
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