The Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-Ji) was the inspiration for the Silver Pavilion. Built as a retirement retreat by a warlord in 1390ish, it was turned into a temple on his death. This Pavilion is only 60 years old - a monk, obsessed with the building and suffering from rather substantial mental illness, burned down the original in 1955. The above is an exact replica (and all the more shiny for it). Given its beauty, it is very much on the tourist route in Kyoto. Accordingly, the enterprising Buddhist sect running the place has made sure that sufficient tacky souvenirs are available
The Silver Pavilion (Ginkakuji). The beautiful grounds at Ginkakuji had the first raked gravel garden we’ve seen, and boy, it’s a doozy. The cone-with-the-top-chopped-off (a conical frustrum, the internet informs me) is around five feet high, and the main bed of gravel is about a foot deep.
Chion-in in central Kyoto. Disappointingly, the main hall is shrouded for restoration work until 2019, but there are some lovely views of the city.
It was a rainy old day when we woke up in Koyasan, but we wandered around the Danjo Garan Complex nonetheless. The complex is designed as a “quiet and secluded place” for training Buddhist monks. So it’s like a Buddhist university campus, made up of loads of giant wooden temples, with chants emanating from the odd one or two, and some sodden tourists strolling by.
In Koyasan, the done thing is to stay in shukubo, or temple lodgings. We stayed in one called Saizen-in and enjoyed a Shojin Ryori dinner (Buddhist vegetarian meal). There were many different kinds of tofu, most of them delicious. Our room itself was actually three separate rooms, separated by sliding doors — a sitting room, a dining room, and a sleeping room.
Some companies keep memorials in Okunoin for past employees, which means you spot the occasional bizarre monument emblazoned with corporate logos (or just crowned with a bloody great rocket) scattered amongst the regular plots.
Koya is a mountaintop town a few hours away (by train) from Osaka. Founded in 819 by a Buddhist monk, the town has dozens of temples and monasteries. At one end of town is Okunoin, a vast cemetery with more than 200,000 monuments erected over the last thousand or so years. The monuments line a pilgrimage route that winds up through a soaring forest of Japanese cedar trees. It’s all very atmospheric, with a bit of an Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider feel.
The Great Gate (O-Torii) of the Itsukushima-Jinja, a shrine complex on the island of Miyajima, half an hour’s ferry-ride from Hiroshima. It floats in the bay in front of the shrine, until low tide comes along and somewhat ruins the illusion.
The Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine is everything you would expect: majestic and eerie in the misty morning. Especially fond of the auxiliary shrine where scholars can leave used up pencils and pens for good luck on exams.
Seven-year old girls dressed up in kimonos at the Meiji Shrine to celebrate Shichigosan, a traditional coming-of-age ritual. The main festival day is next month, but many families were marking the occasion over the long weekend.