On the last morning of our Kyoto trip, Nana and I hoofed it out to Arashiyama, a woodsy district in the foothills of the mountains to the west of town. Our first stop was Tenryu-ji, a bustling temple with a huge forest garden.
Tenryu-ji, yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to the Rinzai sect of Buddhism. It's a spectacular site in the autumn, most famous for its use of the hills behind as "borrowed scenery" and for a massive and well-tended bamboo grove.
If you don't mind, I'll let the photos speak for themselves!
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| Yet another of those odd, fachwerk-haus gates. |
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| A brilliant dash of momiji (Japanese maple) at a little shrine near the main gate. |
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| A hint of borrowed scenery. |
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| Did I mention that it was a spectacularly clear day? |
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Looking out over the temple grounds from the top of the hill.
Many of Kyoto's temple gardens have a little hilltop path at the back. |
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| A little ornamental pond . . . |
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| . . . with a very serene-looking frog. |
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As you can tell from this next batch of photos,
I was completely captivated by this huge bamboo grove. |
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The picture can't quite capture the eerie depth of the place,
or the wind whispering through. |
We left the temple by the back door, taking a nice little walk through the bamboo on our way to the Arashiyama Monkey Park. Yes, you read that correctly - the Arashiyama
Monkey Park! (Stay tuned for more.)
