Sightseeing!

I thought I'd follow up the post on money with something a little more fun - sightseeing! Kyoto is an incredibly rich city, culturally and historically. There's that well-known Japanese saying - Tokyo is the brain of Japan, Osaka the stomach, and Kyoto the heart. It's funny, but also very true, I thought. One thing I don't regret about my time in Japan is that I think I explored Kyoto pretty thoroughly, by which I mean that I visited all of the most famous and popular tourist-y sightseeing spots.

It was especially interesting to visit places I'd read about or seen or studied before I went to Japan. Not to be excessively corny, but in some ways this was a dream come true. I've been interested in Japanese history and culture since I was young - it just grabbed me, for some reason - and I clearly remember reading about the rock garden at Ryoan-ji in one of my middle school social studies textbooks. The photograph left quite an impression on my young mind. So of course it was hugely exciting to get to finally visit Ryoan-ji, so many years later...


...but, I'm not going to lie, my first impression was that it was rather smaller than I had expected. It wasn't a disappointment, not at all, but it just goes to show how powerful one's imagination and expectations can be. By the way, rock garden aside, I'd highly recommend a trip to Ryoan-ji for the grounds, which were easily among my favorite in Kyoto.

Another interesting site was Kinkaku-ji. I had long been fascinated by the temple because of famous the Yukio Mishima novel by the same name, based on the true story of a monk whose obsession with the temple's beauty leads him to burn it down. Naturally, I couldn't wait to see the edifice that had captured this monk so much.

omg my eyes

I found myself surprised again, but for a different reason - Kinkaku-ji was even *brighter* than I had expected. The name translates to "Golden Pavilion Temple," and the temple had to be rebuilt not too long ago because of the burning, but somehow I had expected the exterior to be more aged, and not quite so...shiningly polished. The sheen really can hurt one's eyes, especially because I had gone during sunset.

One last sightseeing reminiscence, and one of my favorite spots in Kyoto - Ginkaku-ji, or the Silver Pavilion Temple. Unlike Kinkaku-ji or Ryoan-ji, I had never heard much about this site, so I had no idea what to expect. The temple itself, which you can see in the picture, was nice but not too exciting (though apparently it looks amazing when snow falls). But the wooded grounds surrounding the temple were gorgeous, especially once the leaves began changing color. Ginkaku-ji has a great rock/sand garden too, and an amazing variety of mosses and trees. It doesn't hurt that I ended up going to Ginkaku-ji several times (with friends, for field trips, etc.). I even got to see some interesting wildlife, like a crane perched right in front of the temple, or that bright red dragonfly below.

One more piece of advice for any study abroad students out there - TAKE PICTURES. Of course I dutifully brought my camera with me most of the time, but I just didn't take very many pictures. I was usually dissatisfied with the relatively low quality of the pictures (owing both to my camera and to my lack of skills), and many times I simply forgot or was too lazy. Taking pictures does sometimes detract from an experience, especially when you're too busy trying to get that perfect shot to look around and enjoy yourself. Not to mention you'll probably have to keep up with the group, and people will get irritated if you linger too long. But!!! Now that my semester abroad is over and as I look over my scant photo collection, I really regret that I didn't take more pictures while I was in Japan. I have memories of some truly amazing experiences that I'll (hopefully) never forget, but having pictures makes it easier to remember and to share with other people. So yes, it may be annoying and tourist-y, but I really do recommend snapping photos plentifully and frequently. If you can do artistic, great, but if not, don't let that stop you! After all, it's more about saving the memories, right?