Japan: Ginkaku-ji Temple and Kyomizu-dera

Aww, mixed feelings while writing this post. Sad since this will be the last of the Japan series. After 4 months of procrastination, it will finally come to an end. Gosh, am I not lazy? Or busy? 4 months to write 5 days in Japan :)) But happy because I can finally move on!  :)

Our last day was very full because we really want to make the most out of the trip. After the tiring tour of the imperial palace, we grabbed lunch at a nearby place then rode the bus to Ginkaku-ji temple. If kinkakuji was known as the golden temple, ginkaku-ji was the silver pavilion. :) These perfectly shaped sand garden greeted us.. What an amazing sight!

It was a long walk before we could see the silver pavilion. But the view was amazing going up so we did not mind the walk :) However, we were kinda disappointed when we reached the top seeing this:

I guess our expectations were just high from the golden pavilion days before eh?

Our last stop was Kyomizu-dera. Here's me and Jay on a bus going there. One of the few times you see him with this huge smile on his face :p

and he has to ruin the shot :p

It was again a long walk from the bus stop going to the temple itself. As a proof of the miles we walked during the entire trip, funny thing happened where Raffy's shoes gave up! haha.. And of course, we had to take a pic of it :)

Going up we saw several sights that for me capped our Japan trip:

For some reason, green tea is very famous in Japan. They have green tea ice cream, green tea cream puffs and even green tea flavored Kitkat!

 School boys and girls :) I find the Japanese children so cute and kakagigil! hehe.. And when we saw these not-so-children anymore, I'm still amazed with their uniforms including their bags! :D

If just given a chance to wear Japan's national costume, I'd really love to try! It's just so girly girly and formal at the same time :)

I don't know why but whenever I think of Hello Kitty, I'd always get reminded of Japan. Here's a stolen pic I got of here in Kimono.. so cute!

Of all the temples we visited during our short stay here, one can really say that they are religious and passionate people. This pic here reminds me of how disciplined the Japanese people are and I'd always admire them for that.

Finally, we reached the steps of the temple.

But still it's a long way up to reach the Otowa falls. On our way there, we saw the Kyoto tower.

It was a unique experience to be able to go under the water and drink from the waterfalls believed to have wish granting powers :)

Then it was time to say goodbye to the beautiful country of Japan :) We felt so lucky we were able to go there before the earthquake, tsunami and radiation happened. I'd really want to go back there someday, someday :)

Japan: Kyoto Imperial Palace

Hmmm, i really need to work double time on my JP posts if i still want this blog to survive and i really do!!! So here goes:

Exactly 12 hours before our flight back home was scheduled for the Kyoto Imperial Palace tour. The palace was enormous. 

shot attempting to scale the place

palace grounds

one of the gates

gold details on the roof

And their roof is made of this: 

I <3 Japan because of sights like these:

Different structures inside the humongous place :)

And here's a parting shot with our tour guide :)

Japan: Kyoto's Inari Shrine

This is the last day of our trip :( So it was full-packed. Left the hotel at around 7am and off we went to Fushimi Inari Shrine.

group shot at the gate

We were amazed of the shrine with all its many tori gates. Walking along the tunnel made of red-orange torii was a memorable experience for me. Oh and this is also where they shot a scene from the movie Memoirs of Geisha.

I just learned that the shrine is a tribute to the Shinto god or rice and industry, Inari, whose representatives are fox spirits. So that explains why we saw many of these monuments around the shrine.

Japan: Osaka Aquarium

Despite our very short Japan trip, we had the best travel planner - Achi so we were able to squeeze in Osaka. So what to see in Osaka? Osaka aquarium and the largest public aquarium at that!

osaka aquarium building

glimpse of what we'll see inside

tunnel

picture spot

We saw a lot of sea creatures from sharks to penguins to giant crabs to jelly fishes to different kinds of rays. There were also two "butandings" or commonly known as whale sharks. 

The aquarium was really huge like equivalent to 3-4 floors. Ok, so to give you a clearer view of how BIG it was - got this from Mr. Wikipedia:

The walk-through aquarium displays marine life in several habitats comprising 27 tanks in 16 main exhibits with a total volume of 10,941 tons of water. The habitats are from theRing of Fire area of the Pacific Ocean. The largest tank is 9 metres (30 ft) deep and holds 5,400 cubic metres (190,699 cu ft) of water and a variety of fish including manta rays and a pair of whale sharks.^[4]

The tanks used in the aquarium are made of 314 tonnes (346 tons) of acrylic glass - roughly 1.5 times the world's annual production. The largest single pane measures six meters by five meters by thirty centimeters and weighs roughly 10 tons. At the thicknesses used, regular glass would be unwieldy and would not have the desired transparency.

i

to show us how thick the aquarium glass was

But for me the highlight was touching the shark and sting ray :) It feels surreal being in close contact with these deadly animals :)) And oh apparently I don't have pictures to show that I really touched them :p But here's Jay and Raffy enjoying their new friends :))

Japan: Temples in Kyoto

We rode an overnight bus from Tokyo and arrived in Kyoto at around 7-ish. Here's May's first shot of the day...

good morning Kyoto :)

Since Achi and Josh rode the bullet train, it was just the four of us (Raffy, May, me and Jay) who went to the first temple.

nishi honganji temple

One thing I loved about Japanese temples are the tatami mats. It feels so relaxing on the feet and you could lie down anytime and every time you want to. I even want to put it in some places of my future house :) 

me and May 

We met up with the rest of the group at Kyoto station. Man, their station is big! We grabbed some breakfast along the way and found our bus to the next temple.. 

:-O

group shot at the temple's entrance
P.S the girl who took this photo really looked younger for her age hehe

Of all the temples we were to visit, this is the one I'm really looking forward to because it is known as the golden temple. And true enough, it was sparkling gold and it did not disappoint :) The temple is picturesque!

kinkakuji temple

It's sad that the weather was not cooperating that day. It rained while we were touring the place so some of the guys bought umbrellas (very cute) and even if we were already wet, that didn't stop us from eating ice cream along the way.

love love the transparent umbrellas :)

The next temple was about 1.6km away so it was a pretty long walk(again) but I'd say it's all worth it. Here we saw the Ryoanji Temple or also known as 'The Temple of the Dragon at Peace'. I didn't realize Japan had beautiful gardens until I saw these in Kyoto :) These are known as 'dry landscape gardens'. I absolutely love the perfectly raked rocks. *sigh* the place is so relaxing, perfect for meditation and rest :)

Then we were headed to our last temple for the day which is about 600m away from Ryoanji. Ninnaji temple also has beautiful view and a very serene place. We were already a bit tired when we reached here so we took our time resting and savoring the serenity of the place.

pagoda behind us