Welcome to Kyoto, Japan! On our Japanese adventure, we've visited Tokyo, Himeji, Nara, and Kobe, but the very prettiest spot in all of our travels, was The Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. This Ancient structure, Kinkakuji, is a Zen Temple, covered in gold. Previously the temple was a retirement villa for a shotgun, but turned into a Zen Temple after his death (way back in the 1400s!). Even the interior is overlaid in gold leaf, with each floor representing a different style of architecture.
There are paths and ponds winding around the temple, leading to the beautiful gardens. We spent all our time exploring these gardens and pathways as every corner proved to be another sensational photo opportunity. While you cannot enter the temple, the view from the grounds is absolutely stunning and otherworldly in it's history, reverence, and beauty.
If you make 1000 paper cranes, you will be granted a wish for health and long life!
If Kinkakuji is all about beauty, Fushimi Inari Shrine, was all about the cool factor. The Shinto Shrine is famous for it's vermilion torii gates that are stacked back-to-back, creating paths up into the woods of Mt Inari. The mountain itself is sacred and the entire shrine is dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. Of the thousands of shrines built for Inari, this is one of the most important.
The hike starts at the Senbon Torii (thousands of torii gates) where there are two paths you can chose. You can hike up one trail and down the other, but know that the round-trip journey will take you about three hours. We made it up about half way, but my claustrophobia started to kick in a some point along the way. While it's a very popular tourist destination, there paths are long and winding, so there was ample time to snap a photo free of other visitors. Of all the masterpieces I've seen around the world, this was one experience I'll never forget.
My talented sister-in-law took these amazing photos of Matt and me. I've tagged her in the pictures she captured, but the rest were snapped on our phones or with my Canon.
After a day spent exploring it was time for food in "The Nation's Kitchen", Osaka. We stuffed our faces with ramen and then headed to the Osaka Mint Museum for the famous cherry blossom festival. The Mint grounds are lined with over 350 cherry blossom trees and they were spectacular viewed at night. The festival was swarming with people and brimming with rows of delicious festival food. Festivals in the US are one of my favorite ways to spend a day and festivals dedicated to Spring flowers make the experience even better!
There are enough activities and restaurants to keep you busy in Kyoto and Osaka for months, so we surely didn't see enough, packing both cities into one day. We had a taste of these beautiful cities and are hungry to see more :)
Comments
Post a Comment