Japan 2015 - Day 6 Vistation of Temples in Kyoto

It was a beautiful morning at Ryokan Yamazaki the greenery and the blue sky viewed from the window of our room and it was telling us it's going to be another wonderful day in Kyoto.

Madam of Ryokan Yamazaki was such a lovely lady, she is friendly and speaks a fair bit of English too. Her breakfast was awesome.

Yes! we were ready for the day to visit as many places as possible.

The ever beauty of sakura welcoming us as we rode towards our destinations.

Our first visit of the day which was about 5km ride from our hotel. Tenryū-ji (天龍寺) is formally known as Tenryū Shiseizen-ji (天龍資聖禅寺) and is the head temple of the Tenryū branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. It is located in Susukinobaba-chō, Ukyō Ward.

The temple was founded by Ashikaga Takauji in 1339, primarily to venerate Gautama Buddha, and its first chief priest was Musō Soseki. Construction was completed in 1345.

  In 1994, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto".

Tenryuji (天龍寺) is the most important temple in Kyoto's Arashiyama district. It was ranked first among the city's five great Zen temples.

Arashiyama is the second-most important sightseeing district in Kyoto. It’s filled with temples and shrines, but the star attraction is the famed Arashiyama Bamboo.

Cycling through the famous Bamboo Grove.

The main street of Arashiyama, along with the famed Togetsu-kyo Bridge, which form the heart of Arashiyama, is nothing but a tourist circus.

Tourists were seen wandering everywhere in this area, we decided to rest at Arashiyama Station for some snacks and enjoyed watching the moving crowd.

That's all for us in Arashiyama, we got to move on to other places of interest.

Waiting for train to cross such as this is very common in Kyoto or maybe in Japan.

This was one of the cycling routes that was memorable, interesting and thrilling. We just went on blindly on a narrow earth road and thinking how Oregon could lead us in such a route.

The eery part of it was passing by this cemetery along the path.

This path is about at least 700 metres long.

I was praying and hoping that we do not ended up at a dead end.

Another secluded bamboo grove at a dirt path, you can only encounter and enjoy such condition if you just dare to follow the small device. Well done Oregon I like the adventure.

At last we could see houses at the end of the trail, Jo was negotiating with the muddy track and was another great relief for her. (Location = GPS : 35.024759, 135.700487).

The intensity of people incresed as we arrived at another temple also listed in the World Heritage Sites and that is, Ninna Ji (仁和寺). It is the head temple of the Omuro School of the Shingon sect of Buddhism and was founded in 888 by the reigning emperor.

My bike parked next to a similar one at the entrance of the temple.

Ninnaji's five storied pagoda and the blooming cherry trees

Ninnaji is also famous for a grove of locally cultivated, late blooming cherry trees called Omuro Cherries. Because the trees are late blooming, Ninnaji is a good place to visit towards the end of Kyoto's cherry blossom season, which is usually around mid April.

The entrance ticket to Kinkaku Ji Temple also known as the Golden Pavilion.

Kinkakuji (金閣寺, Golden Pavilion) is a Zen temple in northern Kyoto whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf. Formally known as Rokuonji, the temple was the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and according to his will it became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death in 1408. Kinkakuji was the inspiration for the similarly named Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion). 

After pedalling for nearly 12km from Kinkaku Ji Temple my tired wife has finally reached Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社). The complaint over "never reaching destination" was finally over. 

A chance to snap a picture with two friendly geisha ladies.

You can say the safety in Japan is remarkable, we could just merely parked our bicycles in public without fear of getting them lost.

Fushimi Inari Taisha is the head shrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is 233 metres above sea level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines which span 4 kilometers and takes approximately 2 hours to walk up. 

Along the way out from Fushimi Inari Taisha, we tried this BBQ skewered meat...yummy and that was our appetiser.

Our dinner at the food street of Fushimi Inari Taisha

It was running late this was one of the few shops still opened for business, domo arigato for the nice dinner.

No way we were going to cycle back Ryokan Yamazaki at this time, taking a train back was just right. That was a lot of temples we visited in a day and good night till then we shall see you again.