Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Japan Day 9 - Silver Rain

After yesterday's long day, Stan gave us two places to see at our own pace today- Ginkaku-ji and Hakusasonso. The day started off very overcast and quickly turned into rain. I spent the morning hoping the rain would stop while catching up posting photos and checking the Magic game. (Yay they Won!) In the afternoon it was down to light rain so me and Dusty headed out to the sights a short bus ride away.

First we came upon Hakusasonso which is a nice garden to see but it was raining harder and at 800yen for admission, we decided to come back on the weekend and see it when it's not raining. I have a month long Kyoto subway/bus pass so transportation here doesn't cost me anything extra to come back later.

Further up the road was Ginkaku-ji I could tell when we were getting close because the road narrowed and became lined with small tourist shops. Ginkaku-ji is known as the Silver Pavallion. It was commissioned by Ashikaga Yoshimasa as a retirement villa to rival Kinkakuji- the Golden Pavalion (which is actually covered gold) but he died before Ginkaku-ji was finished and it was never covered in silver leaf. Admission was cheaper at 500yen and it had some covered areas so we decided to see it in the rain.

Japan Day 9

The main Pavilion was being renovated but they had taken down most of scaffolding around the front so we still got to see it. The gardens were very nice even in the rain we walked around for a while. It was too wet even under the covered area to sit down and sketch so we may be back again.

Japan Day 9

On our way out, we smelled smoke and saw a bunch of ladies run out of one of the small food shops on the end close to the Pavilion. We hung around a minute to see what was going on and then we saw the reason- flames were coming out of what appeared to be a oven. A man from the shop next door came over and turned the gas off and looked like the fire went out. Soon after the fire department was there. They sent at least 6 firetrucks which all didn't fit on the small road. They weren't going to let anything bad happen so close to one of japans most prized possessions.

Back the hotel I was tired (mostly from the day before still) and took a nap. I worked a little on the Parti (the core idea) for my design project thats due Monday and that was pretty much it for the day

Photos Day 9

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