Today we got up nice and early to try and beat the Kyoto tourist rush we've noticed.
Despite getting there before it even opened, we still had a couple of tour groups pull up as we went into the first stop for the day. Luckily they were monks and fairly quiet though! (Even if they did all appear to be taking their new profile pictures in the gardens on their iPhone 6s)
The Ryoan-ji zen gardens were beautiful. At first the rock garden seemed to be smaller than I pictured, but as we sat there, cross legged next to dozens of monks, it became a really peaceful, lovely place.
I could have sat there for hours if not for the hoards of American and Chinese tourists who slowly flowed in, gossiping and chatting.
On the way out though, there was a small basin (a tsukubai) which is common near temples for washing your hands and mouth before entering a holy place, with an inscription further telling of the buddhist metality, "I learn only to be satisfied" which felt completely at place there.
After the zen garden, we hurried over to another famous temple, Kinkaku-ji temple - the completely gold one.
It was already teeming with other tourists, and it's odd how so many people have such a herd mentality. Some of the buildings people were crowding were of no real significance, while other buildings which were centuries old had no one looking at them.
We've found that a lot of Kyoto has a very "in-and-out" feel to it, and people aren't really appreciating the amazing things before them.
Despite the annoying people, the building itself was incredible. It used to house some of Buddha's artifacts, which is amazing to think about, and the whole thing is completely covered in real gold and lacquer. The reflection in the pond in front of it was stunning.
Seeing all of this took much less time than we anticipated, so we decided to head south to
I didn't tell Sean what it was, because he would never have agreed to do it. It's a a 2 hour walk up a 250m mountain, but it was pretty incredible.
There were about 16 big shinto shrines along the climb, and over 1000 bright orange archways called Toriis.
The view from the top was pretty amazing of Kyoto, but the real standout was the seqa of bright orange we saw the whole way.
As a reward for our long climb, Sean got a Pocari Sweat (a poorly named Gatoraide) and I got a pile of lollies!! (Ignore that elderly lady who was also at the top, I swear, it was a tough climb)
Tomorrow, a day trip! xx