Saturday in Kyoto

We started off with a temple visit:

Nansenji Temple and garden was built in 1296: it belongs to the Buddhist Zen sect. We saw the first dry garden with waves raked in the gravel. The waves are the sea, the rocks are the mountains in this type of garden. We walked through the garden on a raised wooden platform to ensure that the garden is not spoiled by all the footsteps. A small teahouse with steppingstones leading up to it is a typical teahouse garden which we saw.

We were allowed to take pictures of the garden, but not the inside of the houses. The area of a room is expressed by how many tatami mats, for example an eight mat room.

We saw an interesting aqueduct: water is brought from Lake Biwa to irrigate the gardens. This technique of building was brought from Europe. The bricks from which the aqueduct are constructed are most unusual in Japan.

Vegetarian restaurants are typically known as monks food. It’s known as monks food because monks were always vegetarian !

Later

We walked around Gion, the district for Geisha and Maiko. But their business only starts after dark. We saw only one hurrying to work, distinguishable primarily by her white face powder and elaborate hair do. The traffic back to the hotel was horrendous. Saturday night in Kyoto!

Some people stayed in Gion for dinner or stopped en route for more shopping. Ruthe went to a sushi train and also to a Cat Cafe, where beautiful breeds of cat wander around the customers who order a drink! This was what I did:

Room service!