This was to be our last day in Kyoto so of course we visited……..some more temples! First was the Silver Temple or Ginkaku-ji, the last attraction on our “must see” list. This was built by the grandson of the shogun who had built the Golden Temple, which we visited yesterday. Its design matches that of the earlier building, and it too served as its builder’s retirement villa before being converted to a temple. However, Ginkaku-ji has never been silver – the name probably arose as a nickname to distinguish it from the Golden Temple. It was fairly close to our house, so we managed to arrive for its opening at 8.30, to find that we had beaten the crowds……but also that the morning sun was still hidden behind a mountain, and the temple and its garden were in shade. Unusually for Japan, this wooden structure has never burnt down, and what you see is the much restored original, dating from 1482.
We decided to wait until the sun could reveal their full beauty, which took nearly an hour.
The Silver Temple lies at the start of a popular walk called the Philosopher’s Path, which runs along the side of a small canal lined with cherry trees. In spring it must be spectacular (and horribly crowded) but in autumn it was pleasant and quiet. There are a lot of temples close to the path, some well-known and quite popular and some totally off the main tourist circuit. We tried a couple of each type, enjoying the feeling of freedom of making up our plans as we went and not having to do any more crowded “must see” attractions. Even the slight disappointment of being served our weakest yet cup of latte – warm milk that may once have seen a coffee bean – did not spoil our mood.
A highlight of our stroll was seeing our best yet Kyoto autumn colours at the Eikando Temple.
We finally ended up at the Chionin Temple, near our house, with its huge entrance gate.
It had two gardens. The one we liked better was the Yuzen garden, which is actually modern – dating from 1954. It had probably the most evocative statue we had seen in Japan, a Buddha standing in a small lake. It was a fitting end to our visit to a city that we had finally got to like. At first we had been repelled by Kyoto’s ugly centre and crowds of other tourists. But we had now discovered that the real joy of the place is wandering around the hundreds of less-visited temples – it is a feeling unlike anything else on the planet.
We said a goodbye to our statue and all that it represented of the best of Kyoto, picked up our bags at our house and headed to the station to catch our Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo.
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