Japan 14: Kyoto 2, Ancient temples

Kyoto is the ancient capital city of Japan. And in this ancient capital, lies many historical monuments of which consists famous temples and shrines located in numerous locations around the city. Modeling after Chinese capitals, Kyoto has been the cultural centre of Japan for over 1000 thousand years, such that it has been named one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. 17 sites in Kyoto are categorised under this World Heritage Site title, where they represent different eras of construction and architecture.

For visitors with a lack of time, the greatest concentration of temples is located at the northern part of Kyoto city, where a stretch of 3 temples can be accessed continuously on foot.

Amongst them is Ninna-ji 仁和寺. Located about 20 minutes walk from the nearest railway station, it is however, not one of the easiest sites to navigate around.

This temples is one of the few temples that allows free entry to all visitors.

It consists of not just one temple, but a complex of buildings in quite a huge area and all of them comes under one name, Ninna-ji 仁和寺.

About 10 minutes walk through hilly region, the next stop is Ryoan-ji 龍安寺. The walk through the temple area is free but entry into the main temple cost around 500円. One might think that the free entry is sufficient enough to experience this temple, as it has beautiful lush greenery, but the entry into the main building is really the main draw of this visit to this temple.

This temple is famous for its Rock Garden which consists of 15 rocks arefully laid in groups of five. It is meant for visitors to gaze upon to imagine what they represent.



It must really amazing how a rock garden can be so amazing. How the rocks blend in with the surrounding trees and the spectacular texture of the sand. And it must have four different looks in the four different seasons.

The simple yet stylistic of Japanese architecture. It simply relaxes one's mind.

Refinement at its best.

Just another short walk away, is the very famous temple Rokuonji, 鹿苑寺. One great artistic entrance ticket into Rokuonji, cost 400円.

Not only are the sights of the temples and the gardens wonderful, fellow visitors to the temples make a very interesting sight as well. The fashionable styles of Japanese school girls come to life in a temple.
This is likely one of the famous sites for postcard perfect photo in this part of Japan, the beautiful Kinkaku, 金閣, where it was painted with pure gold. Unfortunately, visitors can only get gaze at this amazing structure from afar; no entry is allowed.

This period of late spring is likely to be the school vacation period, where many students flock to different sites around Japan for their school trip.

A very rare sighting. Although Japan is a developed nation, it has quite a low obesity rate. People on the fat side are a real rarity in Japan.

Even then, one must agree that their school uniform is formal, neat and looks simply great. These students probably dress much much better than a great proportion of Singaporeans along the streets.

An amazing contrast of the old and the modern; the traditional and the fashionable; the refined and the outrageous; welcome to Japan.