Vignettes of the World
Once you’ve had Japanese food in Japan, you can never go back to Japanese food elsewhere. This has been the comment I have heard from many, many people. As this was my first trip ever to Japan, I naturally had high expectations for its food. …
The Gio-ji Temple lies in the quiet of Arashiyama’s back quarters, its petite garden covered in moss. Its humility is deceiving. Unlike the bigger temples, such as Tenryu-ji, Jojakko-ji or the Nison-in Temple, Gio-ji appears, at first glance, to pale significantly in terms of the …
If the 1,200 rakan statues that stand at the Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple represent the Buddhist followers’ celebration of their faith in life, then the 8,000 stone markers at the Adashino Nenbutsu-ji Temple are the proper tribute to death. The sky opened up at this hour …
More than a thousand stone rakan statues populate the temple ground at the Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple. Being moss-covered, the stone statues create an ambience that is faintly eerie, but the unique facial expressions on the statues convey a quirky sense of comical cheerfulness at once. …
The golden glow of the Kinkaku-ji Temple comes from actual gold leaves plated on the exterior walls of its upper levels. My heart leapt as I saw it luminesce in glory and grace. The Kinkaku-ji Temple is a ten-minute bus ride from the Ryoan-ji Temple. …
I finally managed to wake up early enough for the morning sightseeing. The most anticipated temple of the day is the famous Kinkaku-ji Temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion. I planned on getting there when it opened at 9am. I wanted to see more, …
The very last sightseeing on my first day in Arashiyama was the Nonomiya Shrine. The Nonomiya-jinja Shrine is a Shinto shrine. Because of its nature as a native faith in Japan, it differs quite significantly from the elaborate temples of Arashiyama, both in terms of …
The grilled eel of Japan is likely the most suitable first course of introduction in Japanese food for those who are not accustomed to eating raw fish. “Unagi’ is the Japanese name for freshwater eel. “Anago” is also eel, but it refers to sea eel. …
Perhaps the way that I toured Arashiyama did not comport with the spirit of Zen. By this time, at around noon or so, I had toured the bamboo grove, the Tenryu-ji Temple, the Okochi-Sanso Villa and the Jojakko-ji Temple. Then I was rushing to Nison-in …
After touring the Okochi-Sanso Villa, I made my way to the Jojakko-ji Temple, also in the vicinity. In terms of natural environ, the Jojakko-ji Temple brings to the large selection of temple visits in Arashiyama another kind of aura. The red foliage at Jojakko-ji Temple …