November 17, 2025 – Kyoto
Turning once again to the Lonely Planet Pocket Guide to Kyoto & Osaka to organize our day, we decided to explore Northwest Kyoto. That walking tour would allow us to visit two of Kyoto’s star temple attractions, both listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites: Kinkaku-ji, known as the Golden Pavilion, and Ryoan-ji, with its raked sand garden punctuated by an enigmatic arrangement of 15 large stones. In addition, the itinerary would include lesser known Ninna-ji temple and the Myoshin temple complex within which one finds Taizo-in, a stunning garden with a dry landscaped forecourt and a lush landscaped area with a small pond beyond.
We set out for Shijo Station on the Karasuma Line and got off at Marutamachi Station, where picked up the #204 city bus to the Kinkaku-ji stop. From there it was a three-minute walk to the temple. It would be a pretty full day—a five kilometer walk with an (under)estimated time of three hours. I don’t know how you could see everything we saw in three hours; we spent all day and could have lingered longer.
- Kinkaku-ji Temple
For a detailed description of the history and design of Kinkaku-ji and its gardens, I would refer you to this Wiki article. For a more concise description, here is an excerpt from Lonely Planet:
A visit to Kinkaku-ji follows a set 15- to 20-minute route along a winding gravel pathway, starting with what’s become the temple’s defining image: a three-storey golden pavilion seen across a pond, accented by tree-clad islets, that’s designed to catch the pavilion’s reflection.
After that classic photo op, the pathway partially loops behind the pavilion, offering closer views of the shingled roof and the gold phoenix capping the temple like a star on a decadent Christmas tree….[E]ach floor employs a different architectural style. The unadorned first floor…uses a style employed in 11th century aristocrat villas. The second and third floors are both covered in gold leaf, with the second in a style…which is associated with warrior aristocrats, and the third employing the style of Chinese Zen temples.
Little did we know, nor would one suspect, that the golden temple is a replica of the original temple built in 1399. In 1950, a young novice monk suffering from a persecution complex and paranoia burned the temple to the ground and then hid in the hills behind the building, where he attempted suicide. He was found and sentenced to seven years imprisonment. The nation went into a state of shock. The Japanese government ordered a replica built, and the temple we saw in November opened in 1955. The monk was released early that same year for mental health reasons. He died the following year from tuberculosis.
Kinkaku-ji is set in a classical Japanese strolling garden, whose design elements are symbolic and based on Chinese and Japanese literature and mythology. The winding path through the site illustrates the relationship between the landscape and the structures within it. From Wiki:
The location implements the idea of borrowing of scenery ("shakkei") that integrates the outside and the inside, creating an extension of the views surrounding the pavilion and connecting it with the outside world. The pavilion extends over a pond…that reflects the building. The pond contains 10 smaller islands. The zen typology is seen through the rock composition; the bridges and plants are arranged in a specific way to represent famous places in Chinese and Japanese literature. Vantage points and focal points were established because of the strategic placement of the pavilion to view the gardens surrounding the pavilion. A small fishing hall … or roofed deck is attached to the rear of the pavilion building, allowing a small boat to be moored under it. The pavilion grounds were built according to descriptions of the Western Paradise of the Buddha Amida, intending to illustrate a harmony between heaven and earth. The largest islet in the pond represents the Japanese islands. The four stones forming a straight line in the pond near the pavilion are intended to represent sailboats anchored at night, bound for the Isle of Eternal Life in Chinese mythology.
At the end of the walk through the gardens, we stopped at a kiosk where I was able to buy a goshuincho, a book for a hand-made goshuin temple stamp. I chose a book with an embroidered cover, the Golden Pavilion on one side and the phoenix capping the temple's roof on the other.
- Ryoan-ji Temple
Ryoan-ji is about a 20-minute walk from Kinkaku-ji. Its rock garden is one of the most photographed Japanese dry landscapes, but Ryoan-ji is more than its 248 square meter rectangle of raked sand. Adjacent to the rock garden is the main temple building.
Formerly the residence of the head of the Myoshin Buddhist sect, and originally an aristocrat’s villa, the building was repurposed as a Zen temple in 1450. The sliding doors of the villa’s tatami rooms are decorated with delicately painted screens.
The former villa and rock garden are set in a park with a small pond and moss-covered grounds.
The garden's date of construction is unknown and there are a number of speculations regarding its designer. The garden consists of a rectangular plot of pebbles surrounded by low earthen walls, with 15 rocks laid out in small groups on patches of moss. An interesting feature of the garden's design is that from any vantage point at least one of the rocks is always hidden from the viewer.
Along with its origins, the meaning of the garden is unclear. Some believe that the garden represents the common theme of a tiger carrying cubs across a pond or of islands in a sea, while others claim that the garden represents an abstract concept like infinity. Because the garden's meaning has not been made explicit, it is up to each viewer to find the meaning for him/herself.
As Wiki notes, the garden is meant to be viewed from a sitting position on the villa’s veranda (above). It was difficult to find a space to sit and after moving from place to place on the veranda, we found it almost impossible to photograph the garden in its entirety. This is by design. It’s not that the garden is so large—it’s only 25 meters long and 10 meters wide—but it was meant to be an enigma not fully comprehensible. From Lonely Planet:
One element people can agree on is that Ryoan-ji’s rock garden was also designed to function like a koan (Zen riddle). From the wood deck viewing area, it’s only possible to see 14 of the rocks from any given angle. Only those who have reached a state of enlightenment are said to be able to see all 15 – a number that represents completeness in Japanese Buddhism. For the rest of us, our inability to see everything merely reflects our human imperfection.
Chastened by our imperfection, we made our way to Ninna-ji.
- Ninna-ji Temple
The Ninna-ji temple complex is about a five-minute walk from Ryoan-ji, back in the direction of Kinkaku-ji. According to the brochure available at the temple ticket booth, Ninna-ji was founded in 888 and is the head temple of the Omuro school of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. It is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
As evident in the brochure (below), this is quite a large complex.
Then we toured the grounds and visited the Gojuno-to pagoda, which is closed to the public but whose interior is digitally accessible via a QR code;
the Kuroshoin formal reception hall;
where I bought a goshuin for my new goshuincho.
- Myoshin Temple Complex
Exiting Ninna-ji’s Niomon Gate and its vigilant stone sentinels, we crossed the street and walked down to the Myoshin-ji temple complex. As Lonely Planet warned, most of the 40-odd sub-temples in the complex are not open to the public, but some leave their doors open so that you can view their interiors from the outside. We were most interested in seeing the gardens of the Taizo-in sub-temple, which Lonely Planet said was well worth its admission fee.
From Wiki:
Myōshin-ji …serves as the head temple of the associated branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. The Myōshin-ji School is by far the largest school in Rinzai Zen, approximately as big as the other thirteen branches combined: it contains within it about 3,400 temples throughout Japan, together with a handful overseas, of the approximately six thousand total Rinzai temples….
We entered the sprawling complex by the main gate
- Taizo-in Garden
Outside the ticket booth were the ubiquitous waving cat (left paw raised beckons customers and visitors) and the laughing Buddha.
There were also two sand boxes, each with a small bamboo rake encouraging you to make your own miniature dry landscape. Here is my husband’s effort
and here is mine.
At the risk of understatement, we are very different people.
From Japan Guide:
Taizoin Temple is the most famous of the subtemples on Myoshinji's main grounds. The temple's beautiful pond garden was constructed during the mid 1960s and is considered one of the best gardens of the Showa Period (1926-1989). Its rock garden was designed in the 1400s by the famous painter Kano Motonobu. The temple also holds a highly valued painting from the 1400s that depicts a Buddhist parable of a man trying to catch a fish with a gourd.
I’m sorry to say we missed the gourd fisherman, but this image on the entrance ticket shows the painting.
I also got a goshuin from Taizo-in, decorated with raked sand from the dry landscape and autumn leaves from the lush garden.
This video gives a sense of the topography of the dry garden and the drama you can create with sand and rocks.
Further on, you come upon the lush garden with its pond and small stream.
This video captures the quiet magic and musicality of this part of the garden.
It was a 5-minute walk from Myoshin-ji to the Kyoto-Kawaramachi Station on the Hankyu-Kyoto Line, which we took directly to Karasuma Station and our 7 Keys apartment hotel.
After relaxing a bit, I tasked my husband with finding "a cool cocktail bar near us," a challenge he rose to. Our destination: the Bar Craft in Gion, near Yasaka-jinja, the temple we visited on our first night in Kyoto. En route we passed some amusing and creative store window and façade advertising.
Bar Craft
We sat at the bar and enjoyed our drinks, as well as conversation with the barman and the view to the garden.
- Okoshiyasu
We settled on a small restaurant whose sandwich-board sign said it offered oden and obanzai, whatever that was. We were two of six patrons. The woman behind the counter was the owner; she had made all the food, fielded the customer questions and conversation, and did the washing-up. Not atypical in small neighborhood restaurants Japan.
We had no idea what anything was, how to order, or what we were doing, so we asked the owner to take care of us, which she happily did.
A quick perusal of Wiki after the fact told us what we had eaten.
Oden is a type of Japanese one-pot dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konjac (a Chinese root vegetable), and processed fish balls, served in a light, soy-flavored dashi broth.
Obanzai is a traditional style of Japanese cuisine native to Kyoto. For food to be considered obanzai, at least half of its ingredients must be produced or processed in Kyoto. Ingredients in obanzai cooking must also be in season. Obanzai cooking heavily relies on vegetables and seafood, prepared simply. Another characteristic of obanzai is the incorporation of ingredients which are usually discarded as waste.
A mystery menu to us at the time, but it was the closest thing to a home-cooked meal we would have in Japan, and the experience was memorable.
Keep it real!
Marilyn
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