A Day of Temples and Eating.

So the day after we had arranged to meet with a monk and sort his garden out; we arranged to go sightseeing with the same monk and uparupa.  We were chauffered around by another man this time.  Thank you driver-san!

So anyway; this day was really good, the large number of people meant everyone was always smiling and being silly which is the recipe for a good day in my books.

We visited a large shrine area, the name of which eludes me at this point; but I was finally shown how to pray properly.  Of course James monk was the one to show me how, so by havnig a monk show me I think I'm safe to practice in front of others.  If a monk can't show me the right way to pray, then who can?

After the walking around and photography we walked around a small shopping square and someone bought some tea; I bought some ice cream and snacks and then we headed off to dinner.

Pictures of which are below.

Needless to say, I ate a lot that day... An awful lot...

I've not read a single newspaper, or watched a single English language news report since I've been here.

I had a little spare time before we headed out, and the first headline I read is one that makes me want to cry.

No, don't reform the diet to include English style campaign financing laws...  *sigh*

There seem to be a lot of small roads following the major river that runs through Kyoto, (the name of which escapes me at the moment, maybe the Kamogawa, I'm not sure.) and none of them seemed to have any safety barriers.  They're all single track too, which means the whole sensation of driving along these types of roads is extremely free.  I doubt anyone who's sober goes off the edge, and the roads here seem pretty safe overall.  I've only seen one accident, and both cars seemed fine.  I.e, The crash occurred at some traffic lights at four miles per hour.

This is just after the entrance to the temple grounds.

It transpires that the difference between a shrine and a temple is down to which religion the grounds belong to.  If it's Buddhist, it's a temple.  If it's Shinto, it's a shrine.  When you're at a shrine the process for worshipping is slightly different as well.

For the first time in my life, I'm interested in religious goings on.  However, I'm still only really interested in the processes, results of monk based labour and the architecture.  (How to pray properly and looking at the amazing gold statues thinking, 'bloody hell that must have taken a lot of money and time to make.')  I've never been much interested in religion; but a good temple, monastery or cathedral is always worth a look!

This building looked good from every single angle.  We tried, and failed, to find a single position that was ugly or strange.  It sits perfectly in the landscape and blends perfectly with the water.

The lake surrounding the temple also provides a fantastic reflection.  It's a little difficult to see in this photo, but when the sun peeks out from behind a cloud the whole scene is reflected by the water, creating the illusion of there being another world hidden somewhere inside this temple.

It's wabi-sabi!

Yeah; try and explain that to a belgian while walking around a temple...

I couldn't!

Beauty in unrefined things?  Maybe?

Fallen leaves on a path?  That kind of thing?

I have no idea how to explain it, primarily because I've only got my own interpretation of what it means; I've never been taught its' meaning.

The same temple from a different angle.  We were too late to see inside, which is a bit of a shame because this seems like a building that would be as interesting on the inside as the outside.

It also has a cool little bridge running over the water, in the classical Japanese style.  Well, classical as we think of it in the West I suppose.  They do have a large number of them here though, so maybe it's not a misguided preconception for a change.

It's a little dark, but in this picture you can see the reflection I mentioned earlier.

The sky was a really fantastic colour on this day, and the clouds looked as if they had been painted with a thick calligraphy brush; so the whole image was pretty much perfect.

My camera kept struggling with the contrast between light and dark places though, so some pictures are horrifically over-exposed, and some are under-exposed.

I really like this picture, despite it being too dark.  You can see the type of clouds I was talking about earlier; and the surrounding trees reflections' are really nice.

This is one of the mental image of Japan I held before coming here, and I'm glad to be able to say I managed to capture that view.

Still water is everywhere here, so I've seen this picture in a number of places - I've just not been able to capture it!

This is taken from the same place, but looking at the temple building.

With a greater emphasis on the sky this time!

From right to  left:  Uparupa-chan, James Monk, Driver-san.

The rest are just random tourists, but I liked how everyone was in a semi-circle and could therefore be seen by the camera.

Driver-san had an awesome camera; but it's a few models below the one I want.

(But don't tell him I said that!)

A final picture of that amazing temple.

Sorry about the large number taken of a single building!

Ok so one more picture of that building...

So I took about fifteen photographs trying to get the sun setting on this bell, but none of them were any good.  So you'll have to settle for this picture of the roof of the belltower (it's only a few mtres high) and a tree...

The sunset over one of the minor temple buldings.

Some of the skies here are fantastic colours, but often not very different to those we have in England.

I can definitely see why this is the land of the rising sun, with their 5AM sunrise and 5PM sunset every day, that does not seem to change.  But I don't think they have any more impressive sunsets than we do.  Maybe if I wake up at 5AM I'll see some really amazing sunrises.  But let's face it, something extremely special would have to happen in order for that to happen.

It's the J-CREW.  Here to fight crime and save the world.  Or something...

I honestly don't know how, but I told them to strike a pose and they all did it without even having to think.

There are some serious pose striking skills in Japan.  It's a skills base that I think is horribly underutilised within society.  I mean come on now, how awesome is this picture!  No planning!

A picture of a picture of a picture.

Being taken.

This took about five times longer to orchestrate than the strike-a-pose as seen above!

Modern art in action, folks!

The sign said, don't go down these stairs, and definitely don't go near the water.

He who dares wins.  And in this case, I won a good photograph of the river at dusk.

It's amazingly calm in this area, despite being relatively close to railway lines and roads.

He who dares, wins.  And maybe this man won a fish.  Who knows.

I wasn't going to wait around long enough to find out, my feet were wet and getting cold!

The sky at night.  Or dusk to be more precise.  But we can clearly see the vast space dedicated to this park; a rarity in the cities of Japan.

We can also just about see the three muskateers without whom, this journey would have been rendered impossible.

あろがとうおざいます！

After my ice-cream, chocolate bun and chocolate ice-cream snack, came this wonderful (if a little expensive) dinner.

It's a bit of a shame, but a family were eating opposite us, and thy had a small kid who kept waving and pulling faces at the big stupid looking foreigners.  To which I pulled faces back and whatnot; but the dad kept telling her off.  Just let the stupid idiot kid be stupid, he'll be crushed by society soon enough, and will no longer have the inclination to have any fun; it happens to everyone after all.

Itadakimasu!  Said before every meal.  Something akin to, thank you for the food.  It probably has a religious significance, but I'm not sure.














And that was the fun temple trip!

Thanks to everyone involved!  It was a really great day.