Kyoto sightseeing

After breakfast, we set out on a sightseeing tour. There were several sights on our list plus four maps of suggested walks provided by the hotel.  The sun was shining and the forecast not good, so the top priority had to be the golden pavilion. Kyoto is much larger than we had first thought, so we used taxis again to get to the temple.

The Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji temple is covered in gold leaf and surrounded by water. 

It is a very popular visitor attraction with everyone jostling for the best view

Around the pond

While walking on the the next temple, we passed a large 'graveyard' of retired pillars and suchlike. 

The next temple was Ryoan-ji where we walked around a large lake this bridge leads to a small shrine on an island.

The star of Ryoan-ji is the rock garden with these rocks arranged on pebbles. We left our shoes at the door and put on slippers to walk on the wood floors. Rocks in temples were often donated by lords centuries ago.

This hall with lovely decorations is by the rock garden

A small temple was unusually open on this day.  We were not supposed to take photos, but here is the ceiling with its cheery dragon. 

 To go out into the garden, there was yet more changing of slippers for outdoor slippers. 

In the gardens was a yet smaller pavilion 

Our final sight of the day was the Ninna-ji temple and gardens 

This magnificent pavilion is what we really came to see

So after lots of walking, we took a taxi back to the Ryokan, collected our cases and went on to our next hotel. For our final day, we did some local sightseeing in the area of our hotel and then taxied to an area linked by "the philosopher's walk" or "Path of Philosophy". The first stop was the Ginkaku-ji temple with its 'Silver' Pavilion, which isn't silver. 

The silver pavilion at Ginkaku-ji

The stone garden

Part of water features 

Tree roots on the walks around the gardens

We then strolled along the path of philosophy which follows a stream and off which were many temples. We choose to see the Otoyo shrine which featured statues of cats and mice.

Then we left the 'philosopher's walk' and caught a taxi back to the hotel to collect our cases before taking the train back to Tokyo and on to the the airport hotel. 

Along the walk the cherry trees were breaking into blossom 

This is sightseeing by rickshaw. Drivers need to be photographers as well

During our train journey, we briefly caught sight of Mount Fuji towering above the skyline

To get to the airport we needed two trains and a monorail. We had no schedule worked out and just turned up and worked things out as we went. We never had more than a few minutes to wait. From Kyoto to Tokyo there was a fast train leaving about every ten minutes. At the airport we picked up a shuttle bus to our Japanese Airlines hotel. The trains lived up to their high expectations. The most impressive thing was that there were never any signalling slowdowns or stops.