The Ancient city of Kyoto: Day 2

After Day 1 in Kyoto we had only slept about 6 hours in the past 3 days, so it was an early night for us.  After maybe one of the best sleeps in my life, we woke up early, re-energized and ready for another very busy day trying to get to everywhere we wanted to go in Kyoto.  The plan for the day was to head to the edge of the city where some of the most famous sites are, unfortunately this meant trading in our bikes for a bus pass.

Our first stop of the day was one of the most famous temples in the world; Kinkakuji Temple, aka the Golden Pavilion.  I’m sure most people already know this but the building is covered in 24 k gold leaf.  It was quite a site.

After the Golden Pavilion we made our way to Ryoanju Temple, or as I called it “that famous rock garden place”.  It’s one of the best know Zen Buddhist temples in the whole world.

I have to admit, at first I didn’t quite get why this temple was so famous.  But I kept an open mind and as I sat there just looking at the rock garden I did start to feel more relaxed and at peace.  I can defiantly see the appeal of Zen Buddhism.

Next we headed to Ninniaji Temple, which is let another UNESCO site, but to be honest after all the other amazing temples we had been to the last day and a half this one was a bit boring.

We then hopped on an old school trolly train and headed out to the very edge of Kyoto to see Tenryuji Temple.  The temple is most famous for the Bamboo Grove that is next to it.

Our last stop of the day was Nijojo Castle.  Sadly we got there after it was closed, but we still got a couple of cool pics from the outside.  After the Castle we did a little shopping until it was time to catch our night bus to Hiroshima.  Kyoto was one of the most unreal places I had ever been and I wish that we had a few more days in the city because there were several things we didn’t get to.  Anyone taking a trip to Japan I would say Kyoto is a must…Well, see you later.

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