So after the green tea ice cream break we headed off in a light rain to check out Nanzen-Ji to the east. there were still quite a few people wandering around in spite of the rain. but by the time that we arrived at nanzen-ji it was pretty far from being a pleasant day. nanzen-ji is yet another temple that was featured in “lost in translation”. it’s the one with the super huge pillars in the temple. you can pay a couple hundred yen and actually go up into the second floor of the temple. which we skipped. and there are quite a few little side and sub- temples too. and did i mention that the stairs up to the temple are HUGE?!?!? like triple the size of normal stairs!
after nanzen-ji we walked a little north through some kinda twisty streets and found the beginning of the Philosopher’s Path. it’s a little path that runs canal side for about two kilometers in a mostly residential area with a few shops or cafes sprinkled here and there along the way. a popular philosopher named Nishida Kitarou used to walk along the path every day. we walked pretty briskly but it just went on and on! we already knew that we would sleep well later that night. and the day wasn’t done yet!!
after our long walk we finally arrived at Ginkaku-ji – the silver temple!! it was near closing time but it was absolutely packed!! tourists everywhere you looked. (even in the mirror) i was really excited to see that i somehow got a few pictures that didn’t have windbreakers and umbrellas in all the colors of the rainbow…. ;-)
we were pretty thoroughly exhausted after all of that walking so jumped on a bus to head back in the direction of our hotel with the intention of finding a tasty restaurant a little closer to home. however, we ended up just wandering more and more around the station… everything was either absolutely packed, unapetizing, or really expensive. so we proceeded to the supermarket in the basement of kyoto station and bought some bento boxes (lunchbox sets). they were tasty and gave mom & gramma a chance to try a bunch of traditional japanese foods (the normal ones, not the fancy ones).
Wowsers! You’re good! I think I’ll just link your blog to mine and people will think I’m good :-) I want to stop doing house/barn work and work on my Japan scrapbook!