Day 4 - 5/16/18 Silver Palace, Philosopher's Walk, and Slurping Soba

Day 4: Wednesday The Eastern Tour of Shrines and Temples

Entrance to the Garden at Silver Pavilion

Where to begin? On this, our first free tour day, we decided to start with the easternmost destination spots, the Silver Pavillion, Ginkakuju Temple. We were blessed with an almost immediate 203 bus as we headed out east, past the parade route of yesterday, over the river where we had seen the bride and groom pose on the riverbank, past Kyoto University and finally out to the stop for Ginkakuju Temple. The road up to the Temple was lined with small souvenir shops, ice cream shops, cold green tea shops and occasional mister, which we welcomed at the temperatures rose into the 80s. Uniformed and well behaved schoolchildren of middle school age, apparently on a school trip, were in large supply, but not a problem in the least. We confess to sampling home made fruit popsicles - mango and green tea flavor which immediately cooled us down.

Built by the grandson of the builder of the Golden Palace on the western foothills, the Silver Palace was originally meant to be lined with silver, but alas, wars and other expenses prevented this structure from ever getting its sliver cladding, but still, it is a reserved beauty of the gardens that we found enchanting.

The entrance features sand gardens in graceful shapes.

A bit further on, moss gardens and a peaceful pool encourage reflection.

Moss and trees.

Pool and waterfall.

One of the side buildings is shrouded by Japanese maples

Climbing the path up to a lookout

Bamboo Forest

Along the way, we saw a silvery friend, in honor of the place:

Up at the lookout, lookout!

The Ginkaku-ji temple itself (without silver cladding).

After these amazing gardens, we headed out to the "Tetsugaku-no-michi" - or philosophers path south - that follows a canal and is overhung with beautiful trees. While it was quite hot, there was a breeze and plenty to see with huge catfish in the canal and artists set up along the waterway. The path ened at the Nanzenji Temple (beautiful views) but before taking in the views, we decided on a lunch of soba noodles in an authentic noodle house.

Yaganchi Noodle House - we walked past it three times before we realized this was the restaurant we were looking for.


Pat slurps up some noodles with tofu and quails egg									.

Rich dips his in broth with wasabi and scallion

At Nanzen-Ji Temple, we met some verying interesting people, enjoyed a dramatic view of Kyoto (in the misty afternoon), and saw some classic temple art and architecture.