Ryoanji Temple

Zen Garden

All the walls at most of the places we went to were all drawn on with flowers, trees, animals, whatever you could think of.  They were very well done murals.

Imperial Palace Part Two

Map of how big the Kyoto Imperial Palace.

My NEW House.  Isn't it nice!!!!

So if you look at the top of the peak.  That is the Imperial Families Crest.  Every family has a family crest and they use it on the roofs of their houses.  They are very pretty and very decorative.  The imperial palace's crest is a flower.

A Tortured Pine.  I love them!!  They are so fun looking.

The imperial palace is absolutely massive.  I think that it was about 15 blocks square.  It was massive.  It was a wonderful walk though around the entire palace.  So many cool sights and things to see!!  Everyone that goes to Japan should walk around the palace!!  It's beautiful.

Imperial Palace Part One

One of there many, many gates to get into the actual palace.  We unfortunately were not able to go in but just being there on the grounds was amazing enough.

The Muku tree!  It is so old that all the branches and being held up by beams that way they don't break off.  It was massive!!

This picture is at the back edge of the imperial palace looking towards the other end of the palace.  It was so incredibly large that you can't see the other end when you are standing there.  It was a very impressive looking place. 

Do you see the bee?

Kiyomizu Temple

I don't have any great stories about this place at all but we had to climb a steep hill to get to it.  You could see the city from the top however it was a lot of fog that day so the pictures are just ok.  I was great to be able to see the city of Kyoto from up there.  The tower on the right side of the picture is the Kyoto Tower Hotel.

Kyoto - Castles, Temples, and Shrines

Nijo Castle

Golden Pavillion

The golden pavillion really is made from GOLD!!! Each pane is pounded thinly for the wall.



Heian Shrine 

So these "trees" are really scraps of paper tied around tree branches.  What I got from the guide is the scraps of paper have there prayers on it.  Whatever the person wants good fortune on.

Sanjusangendo Temple

This place was so completely interesting.  There were 1001 buddha statues.  They don't allow cameras into the building so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of all the statues.  It was split into 3 sections.  500 buddhas in that tiered up row by row.  Then the most massive buddha in the world (It must have been 50 feet tall or bigger).  Then another 500 buddhas.



Neishi Temple

They love, love, love their GOLD.  Everything well almost everything has some amount of gold on it.  So what I found out about the differences between a temple and a shrine is that you go to a temple when something bad happens in your life (death, got fired, etc) and you go to a shrine when something good happens in your life (got married, had a baby, got a promotion, etc).  Very interesting. They also don't go to the temple or shrine every week to worship.  It's more when you want to and you can go to anyone to worship.

I found out that there are 1300 shrines and 300 temples in Kyoto.  Also a very interesting fact is that right before World War 2 a US General and his wife visited Kyoto and loved it.  Then when World War 2 broke out and we joined in the war and we bombed Japan they bombed everywhere except Kyoto because of the Generals wife loved it so much.  Kyoto has the most history in all of Japan and the most monuments/temples/shrines.  Kyoto was my favorite city by far because of all the places and history that you can see.

Philosophers Path

A real life Pedi-Cab.

The philosophers path was a wonderful and beautiful walk.  It was along a stream and since the cherry blossoms were out in full bloom it was a wonderful sight.  There were so many people the entire way down the path; by so many people I mean thousands of them.  It was utter chaos.  But, we were still able to get a lot of pictures which is all that matters.