Last day in Kyoto: blossoms, temples, modeling, and night photography

Our day today started at Kitano Tenman-gu shrine to view the plum blossoms. We are in Japan too early to see the famous cherry blossoms, but the plums bloom earlier and are also very pretty. The place was full of people with cameras taking blossom pictures, with everyone swarming to the same sights. It was really pretty (well, except for the crowds).

After getting our fill of plum blossoms, we took the bus to Ninna-ji Temple. They had a 5-story pagoda and some nice grounds. Then it was a short walk to Ryoan-ji, a temple with a famous 15-rock zen garden. The garden was nice, although I can't say that I fully get the rock garden aesthetic. But this rock garden hasn't been changed in hundreds of years, so that's cool. Also, unlike most places we visited, they allowed photography, so we finally got some pictures of the old Japanese style rooms and silk paintings. Not as nice as in the palaces, but a good example of the style. On the way out of the temple, some Japanese teenagers came up to us with a camera and we thought they wanted us to take a photo of their group. After a few hand gestures and key words in English, we figured out that they wanted to take a photo of us with one of them. We agreed, but it was really weird. After taking the picture, they thanked us and then walked away laughing to themselves.

Having made some Japanese teenagers very happy, we left Ryoan-ji and headed to our next temple. Along the way, we stopped for lunch and had a Japanese specialty: deep-fried breaded pork cutlet (tonkatsu). It was really, really good, and also one of the cheapest meals we've had yet. A win-win. The next stop was Kinkaku-ji Temple, home of the famous "Golden Pavilion." This pavilion, covered in gold leaf, was hundreds of years old, but was burned down in 1950 by a crazy monk. They rebuilt it to the same specifications, but added even more gold leaf. It was a very beautiful pavilion, but it seemed weird that a 60 year old building would be a World Heritage Site (I guess the grounds made for an important site, too). In any case, the place was a mad house, as it apparently always is. While we were walking along the pavilion path, some school kids came up to us and asked if we spoke Japanese. We said no, and then they proceeded to ask us in very broken English if they could take a picture with us. If the same thing hadn't happened just an hour before, we might not have known what they were trying to say, but now we were pros. We agreed again, and their teacher took a photo of all of us. This time we were smart, though, and had him take one with our camera, too, so we have proof. Who knew we were so popular in Japan?

With our modeling for the day done, , we started to make our way to Enryaku-ji, a temple high in the mountains above Kyoto. We took a bus to the train that would take us to a cable car that would lead to a rope tow to the temple. Well, our guide book failed to mention that the cable car and rope tow don't run in the winter (and apparently March is winter in Japan). So after taking the train to the base of the mountain, we had to turn around and take it back to Kyoto. Oh well, no mountain temple for us.

Back in Kyoto, we took a much needed rest in a park at the fork of the river that runs through Kyoto. It was a cute park with stones for crossing the river and hawks in the sky looking for a meal. After regaining some energy, we headed to the Gion neighborhood where there was a nighttime lantern festival going on. We had dinner at a noodle restaurant (really good udon), then walked around the streets that were all lit up with lanterns. There were tons of people, most with cameras and many with tripods, so the streets were packed. I broke out my tripod and joined the crowd. It was combat photography, with everyone jockeying for the best spot to take a photo. Actually, it wasn't that bad, but I think only in Japan could you walk around a major city with a tripod and not stand out.

After getting our fill of lanterns and passing the 300 photos mark, we came back to the hotel. Tomorrow we take the bullet train to Tokyo. Kyoto has been a lot of fun, but we can't wait to see what Tokyo will be like. Our exciting Japan adventure continues.