Day 9 (Thursday 14th Oct, 2010)

Today I decided to go to one of the more popular sights in Kyoto: Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavillion. This is perhaps the second most famous, most photographed sight in Japan, after only Mt. Fuji.

I also saw that I could stop at Nishijin Textile Centre on the way; which is highly lauded by all the travel books. So I thought it would be worth stopping by even though I'm not really interested in textiles.
It actually turned out to be really interesting and fun. For the most it's a shop selling kimono, fabric and other such items, but it also serves as a bit of a museum.
They have a selection of different hand looms on display, with information boards explaining how they work etc.
On the third floor, you can actually go and watch people weaving the thread. This is the most incredible part: you can see why these Japanese textiles are so expensive, and sought after. The amount of focus, and time, and care, and effort that goes into making them is beyond comprehension.
I was about to leave, then I heard an announcement for a "Kimono Fashion Show in ten minutes," so I thought I had to stay and watch this.
The kimono on display were really beautiful; so were the girls wearing them...

I left the Textile Centre and set off in the direction of my main sight for the day, Kinkaku-ji.
The ride their got a bit uphill-y, and I guess after a week of almost constant cycling and walking my legs were getting a bit worn out, because it got quite hard going, even though it wasn't that steep.

I was rather hungry by the time I got to the temple, but I couldn't find anywhere to eat. There was an ice cream (soft cream in Japan) parlour though, so I settled for an ice cream to keep me going.
Inside, the temple was fairly crowded, but it wasn't too bad. Being a Thursday afternoon, there were a LOT of school children. Obviously, they realize that there will be a lot of foreign, English-speaking tourists there, so all the students bring their English workbooks with an exercise to interview an English-speaking person.
I got approached for an interview, it was fairly basic of course. "What's your name, where are you from, where have you been in Japan" etc. It was fun though, and afterwards the boy (Shuhei Ando was his name, and probably still is) gave me a gift: a bookmark he'd made, which has some pictures and says "Enjoy your stay in Japan!". So cute!

Throughout the rest of the day all the kids were fascinated by me; I think a lot of them probably have only seen foreigners on TV before (they were all from outside of Kyoto as well, probably small cities). I wish their teachers were as fascinated by me! Yeah, every class seemed to have a very hot teacher (cue Van Halen).

The golden pavillion itself was quite impressive, more-so than it looks in pictures. The rest of the temple was lovely; a nice stroll through a garden with waterfalls and other nice features, and small Japanese children staring at you, and some bold ones saying "Herro!" and then getting really hype when you say "Hello" back.

At the gift shop I finally found a really nice deck of playing cards. I collect decks of cards, and I try to get at least one pack from everywhere I go; I try to go for slightly more unique ones though, rather than the usual "generic back with photos of the popular sights on the faces" when I can find them. I found a nice pack of Ukiyo-e deck, which has a different Ukiyo-e figure on each card. They were a bit on the expensive side (￥1500) but I didn't know when/if I'd find another deck so nice, so I bought them.


After Kinkaku-ji, I set off to the next stop, Ryoan-ji, which has one of the more famous Zen rock gardens in the world.
As usual, I got lost, and as usual, it led to a cool discovery. This time it was a little independant video game store. It sold the usual selection of PS3/PS2/PSP/DS etc games, but also... Famicom and Super Famicom games! (for the non-gamers, Famicom/Super Famicom are the first two console made by Nintendo, which were HUGELY popular from about '85-'95. They had a slew of good games; and original cartridges are kind of hard to find these days and sought after by collectors. I'm not a collector, but it's still cool to see this stuff.)
They had, for example, an original Japanese Tetris cartridge, one of the most well known games in the world, I think.
I didn't buy anything there, but it was cool to look at what they have.

I found my bearings again, and got to Ryoan-ji. In a vending machine outside I found a drink calling itself "Protein Water." Of course I had to try it! It was really nice, I don't know how to describe the flavour; but for something that calls itself "protein water" it only has 1.7g of protein.
Honestly, the zen garden itself was not that great. After I pondered the garden for a while, I managed to see a rabbit lying down, and a badger standing up wearing a monks robes. It is interesting the way your view of something changes when you stare at it long enough.
Once again, the garden was really nice, and good for a leisurely stroll through.

Ryoan-ji was nice, but not a must-see, in my opinion.