Japan Day 4- Rain, Ando, and Daitokuji

The day started out looking like bad. We traveled as a group to see Tadeo Ando's Garden of Fine Arts. It isn't your typical garden.

It more like a multi story concrete and water sculpture with copies of famous works of art displayed in it... not a green plant in sight. It was cheap to see: only 100yen ($1) for admission. As soon as I pulled my camcorder out to record, it started to rain and it pretty much kept raining for the rest of the day. This was first work by Tadao Ando I've seen here and it was cool to see what craft and precision goes into his concrete works. We didn't stay long at the art garden since there wasn't much protection from the rain. I'll probably be back to see again on a prettier day.

Next we headed to see the Daitokuji temple complex. It has 22 sub temples, on a few of which are open to the public. The temple complex was huge with all the sub temples behind their own tall walls. We visited the sub temple of Daisen-in first. Admission was 400yen ($4) It was an old traditional building that was surrounded by beautiful small gardens. Pictures were not allowed inside so I don't have anything to share from there but we were allowed to draw and sketch so we spent a couple of hours there documenting it. When we finished, it was close time to lunch time so we walked around the local streets and found a french bakery that sold sandwichs and I got one that had beef and noodles on it. It different but was good.

We went back after lunch to go see one more sub temple: Kotô-in. It was larger than Daisen-in and they allowed photos. It was surrounded by tall bamboo that shaded it. When the sun came out for a moment, The place took on a magical feeling with how the light filtered through the bamboo and landed on the moss covered ground. One classmate (I can't remember who) described it as being transported to a mystical world like Narnia where you would expect to see a Unicorn prancing around. the Temple itself was a work of art showcasing of the craftsmanship of their construction. I shot some video of the place so if I find some spare time over the weekend I'll work on getting some stuff edited together.

Photos Day 4