Today, I left off from the New Miyako Hotel at 8:30 am. Miyako told me that we will be visiting Kyomizu-dera, Myoshin-ji, and Shisendo. I was really excited for I can relate to these places, especially Myoshin-ji for some secret reasons. Whilst I was in the car, I listened to my iPod and fantasized about many things like I did in South Korea last year.
Scent of the morning
of the Ancient Capital
What awaits me soon?
When we arrived at Kyomizu-dera, there were a lot of people at the temple's road. I was delighted to see a monk whom I had a photo with just like the monk in Seoul, South Korea. Miyako then took me to the entrance where I saw the pagoda. I thought to myself, "Holy sh*t this place is insanely amazing." We also saw some Maiko (apprentice Geisha) and they were purty. As we drew close to the core, I can't help but to realise that this temple is what always appears in Kyoto postcards. It's the pagoda that's always lit up at night and stuff. When we walked around it, I just felt like going samurai. Miyako and I then went to the Kyomizu-dera stage where we saw some pretty autumn trees. After Kyomizu-dera, we headed for Shisen-do. Whilst we were in the car, Miyako was laughing at me for music tripping to Ren Zhe by Jay Chou. When we arrived at Shisen-do, I was dazzled by the tall bamboos that was laying before me at the entrance. I thought to myself, "I wonder how this place looks like by night." The entrance has many steps with bamboos lined at both sides. We saw the interior of Shisen-do and I asked Miyako if this is one of those Zen gardens that I see on the net. She said the garden was only part of the temple. Amidst the autumn trees, we saw this sozu, or deer scarer which had a cute black lizard in it (shouldn't it be scared away by the sozu?). When we finished seeing Shisen-do, we ate at a place called 豆花 (mamebana is how I read it). The food was pretty good, especially the tofu. After eating, we headed for Myoshin-ji, which unlike Kyomizu-dera, only had a few people in it that day. We enjoyed it's great zen gardens and pretty cherry blossoms. I was so surprised to see how big Myoshin-ji is. It covers so much land that I was never disappointed with what I saw.
Spring trees, summer suns,
autumn leaves and winter snow
walk upon Kyoto
After a long day visiting temples, we headed back to New Miyako Hotel where I spent the rest of my day lazying around my bed. It sure was nice to see more of Kyoto and then just kick back after a tiring but exciting day.
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