The story started with us at the bus station looking at every sign and trying to figure out the route each bus goes to (see... that's the difficulty of not knowing Japanese or written Mandarin. So memalukan not to know Mandarin). Anyway, it was about our fifth sign when I saw Ginkakuji. OK... that's close enough. Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji.. what's the diff. We lined up for the bus but had the sense to ask someone. Some intense map tapping and sign language later, we found out that's the wrong bus.
You see, Ginkakuji is the Silver Pavilion while Kinkakuji is the Golden Pavilion. They're on opposite sides of Kyoto. Ginkakuji is not really silver, it's a residence built by the person who built Kinkakuji for his dad. Kinkakuji as you will see, is really gold... breathtakingly bling bling shimmering on a clear still lake on a sunny day... so beautiful!
After the visit to Kinkakuji, we went to Fushimi Inarii, well known for its 4000 torii gates. The temple is dedicated to the fox gods, known for being resourceful and cunning, just like the successful business people who has a torii gate erected in return for donations when they forge success in their business. It takes 1 1/2 hours to finish walking through all the torii gates.
We saw a Shinto ceremony dedicating a baby, and also receiving a family shrine at Fushimi Inarii. No pictures allowed but I was drawn to the sedate tempo of the ceremony which involved dancing, singing and musical instruments.
After the International Manga Museum we visited yesterday, Gaz had to have another spot of manga culture today. We visited Japan's famous export - Osamu Tezuka and his creation Astroboy! Osamu has since passed on but the boy with the rocket butt still lives on. Can you spot me?
No comments:
Post a Comment