Sunday the 29th of April.
A little bit late on the day me and Mika goes out to have a look at Kyoto by bike. Outside our house we find a little difficulty, my bike is not there. I seem to have left it in the city, hehe. So I go and get it and we decide to meet up in Gion and from there go to Heian-jingu shrine. Well that was the plan.
Choin-in Temple
This temple looks kinda neat I think. Unfortunately it was already closed when we got there, but what can you do. We are going there next time.Some info about it, its old and big...hehehe...
Well actually the front gate is massive its the biggest of its kind in Japan. On the temple ground there is also a bell, which supposedly is also the biggest of its kind in Japan. Weighs more than several city buses. On could draw the conclusion from this that the guy who made it all were suffering from some kind of complex perhaps? But what do I know, well I have a normal sized door, that I know.
And apparently this temple appeared in the Tom Cruise movie "Last Samurai" at some point, or so I've heard. Personally I can't recall it , but who know's maybe . Alright, the movie looked nice and I liked Ken Watanabe's performance but for the rest, let's just move on to another topic shall we.
Heian-jingu shrine
This is the Otori in front of the actual shrine, you can see the entrance of the shrine in the back of the picture.This place is pretty big, has a huge yard in the middle and there are four large gardens surrounding the place. But, when we got there the gardens were already closed. We really should start earlier. Anyway, the place is pretty new. Built in 1895 to to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Heian Kyo (Kyoto), and for the sake on some emperors. The gardens (that I never saw) are apparently representative of the Meji era and changes with the seasons. Maybe I should head back there and have a look, couldn't hurt is it doesn't cost anything, or maybe the gardens cost. Can't remember.
Shoren-in Temple
Alright we went to this temple to watch the light up. Meaning we went there after nightfall and they light up the temple grounds with various lights, its quite pretty I think. But also a nightmare for me trying to take pictures. So I do apologies for the bad quality of the images. Plus I ran out of battery on my camera.
Shoren-in Temple's four gardens are famous in Japan, each attributed to a different luminary of Japanese landscape architecture. The gardens are sometimes illuminated at night, and on occasion are the setting for traditional koto(Japanese zither) concerts.
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