Sunday, July 20th: Philosopher's Walk and Nanzen-ji

We woke up and decided to do the Philosopher's Walk, which is close to the hotel and runs you right past many temples. The Philosopher's Walk is so called after a philosophy professor from Kyoto who took this very walk every day. At first, we had a hard time finding it and then, miraculously, we came upon the first temple right at the start of the walk, Nanzen-ji Temple.


Our guidebook told us this was a "quintessential Zen Temple" and that in 1386, it was placed in charge of Kyoto's "Gozan", or the five great Zen temples. It is certainly imposing and grand. Above are the gates to the temple, two stories high, and Stefan particularly liked the tidbit about the gates being a hideout for an outlaw hero who was later boiled alive in a cauldron. Men.

We were able to see the public portion of the abbot's quarters, called Hojo, but not allowed to take picture indoors. We were able to take photos of the Zen gardens, like the one designed by a famous Zen gardener from the sixteen hundreds, who carefully chose these rocks to look like tigers coming to drink at a lake.

There were plenty of pretty gardens as you walked along the outer edges of the Hojo (in your bare feet, of course!) and it was so tranquil.

To be honest, it was also easily 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and if the Saturday was hot but rather dry, then today was exactly what everyone had told us to expect....extreme heat and humidity. But we kept on hiking on the Philosopher's walk toward the Silver Pavilion. I didn't take many pictures because we were literally drinking something the entire walk to stay hydrated and try and stay cool! We went through tons of Pocari Sweat (for me) and Aquarius Zero (for S) which are kind of like Gatorade. But they don't come in twenty different flavors and aren't quite so sweet.

We did see a small flock of ducks swimming in the stream, and I did capture them. Everyone had stopped to watch them for a bit- it was a nice break half way up the walk.



The walk itself was so pretty- winding along with a little stream lined with trees and overhanging trees.

When we got to the Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion), it was completely....covered in scaffolding. Harumph. Additionally, it was packed. We flew through the gardens and then started the long walk home to hit the pool. I know, we've been better sightseers!

There was a nice display of all the different types of mosses around, and we both had a laugh at the below sign (you might have to enlarge the picture to read it yourself): Very Important Moss (Like VIP):