Kyoto... on the way home

After spending the night in Osaka we returned to Nagoya via Kyoto.

Kinkaku ji

Stephen had not visited kinkaku-ji so we made that our first stop.

This was my fourth visit, so rather than the stunning gold of the temple, I was excited that the renovations had finished. There was now a great view of the tree sculpted to look like a boat

Ryoan-ji

With the most famous Rock garden in Japan, this was Pam's chance to see the famous garden. "OK, but seen better" was her review and I agree. Definitely worth a visit but not the best.

The usual gardeners were out. There is a sup rising amount of work in the moss gardens. This one had just been swept.

Arty shot in the gardens

The famous garden in miniature.

Contemplation from the balcony.

Ryugen-in

We had time so we popped in for my favorite rock garden. A small little one at Daitokuji. I like it because there are five small gardens and there are very few tourists.

The use of the pebbles as the sea and the effect of waves is effective.

This time using moss to represent the ocean

The entry hall

Shisen-do

Another good recommendation on Naomi's List. This stunning garden on the edge of town was a pleasant way to end the trip. A beautiful mix of colours and garden. Only issue was the tiny plastic shoes provided for walking around in the garden which did look pretty funny when I tried to wear them.

Entrance

Main garden

Side view of the main garden

Further back

Along the path

OK, hard to resist. It was deceptively large. When you enter it appears like a small garden but behind it is another garden for walking around. A nice relaxing spot.

Art Nouveau - postcards

Before heading back to Nagoya we stopped for lunch near Gion. One of the shops was selling postcards and other items with the postcard images printed on them

These are prints by Takehisa Yumeji (took me an hour on google to find the name)

If anyone is actually interested, the wanderings to find the name of the artist above let me discover a range of quite fascinating modern Japanese art. Have a look at the works of Miyatake Gaikotsu, the "Rekishi ehagaki" series by Tomioka Eisen. Also the Shin Hanga style combination of Ukiyo-e and western surrealism.

And that was it. After four days we headed home. The final surprise for the trip was the fact that there is now a new highway between Kyoto on Nagoya. We traveled about 70km on a freeway that looked like it had just opened. There were no marks on the road, the signs were all new and the tunnels were all light and modern...and 70+ km it was amazing. I could not get over that there was that much freeway opened all at once. It was yet another display at the power of the Japanese economy.