Kyoto by bus and foot

Following on from yesterday’s unfortunate, unexpected and permanent camera malfunction (not the actual words I applied to the situation, let me assure you) my first task for the day was a familiarisation course. Without going into the mind-numbingly boring details, let me tell you this took time and a considerable amount of temper to get to the place where I felt I had at least a slim idea of how I might manage my ‘new’ camera.

This time loss meant the day’s schedule had to be re-set and it was later in the morning when I bought an all-day bus and underground rail ticket and set off for the bus station on the far side of Kyoto station. By some miracle I left the bus at the right stop, walked up a long incline in the hot sun, found an ice-cream stall and crowds of people and eventually the temple I had circled on my map.

All this happened more by accident than design.

The temple I had circled on my map was the Silver Pavilion and it is not silver at all.  It was the intention of the Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa to have the structure covered in silver leaf but his dream was derailed by the Onin War in the mid-fifteenth century. 

So today there is a plain, unadorned temple surrounded by moss gardens and a striking dry stone garden.  In spite of the many visitors, it was a lovely garden to walk through and the green mossed areas provided a strong contrast in colour and form to the blinding white of the dry, landscape gardens.

Dry Stone Garden

Walking through the moss gardens

Leaving the Silver Pavilion behind, I returned to the Philosopher’s Path.  It was my intention to find a place to walk in Japan, in the time available to me, and this path was the only one I could find within easy distance of Kyoto. It’s far from a hike but still provided a place to stroll along beside an inner-city stream and admire the remnant cherry blossom and other lovely early spring flowers. 

Rhododendrons

Left:  The path                   Right:  The view

Successfully finding the bus stop and returning to the inner city, I detoured to the Gyoten Gardens. These are the gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace at Kyoto.  Not gardens strictly speaking, more in line with the idea of an open parkland with large grassed areas, groupings of trees and wide gravelled paths.

These gardens cover quite an area and offered a quiet place for walking or sitting, a contrast to the rumble of traffic outside the garden walls. A place whose quiet was only disturbed by occasional loudspeaker announcements, warning persons (children) that touching the Palace walls is forbidden, never mind attempting to climb upon them!

                                     

            Palace entrance gate - note line in foreground, made through the gravel by cyclists

      Palace building detail


I walked along by the river for a while as I headed back to the hotel, using the bus at the end of the journey as my feet were starting to feel more than a little tired.

While I am wishing I could spend more time here in Kyoto, there is so much I would like to see, I am very, very pleased I made the decision to at least spend a few days here.