Karesansui, Kinkakuji

Saturday, we did a swing through northwest Kyoto, where there are a whole bunch of famous temples with gardens, spanning pretty much the full possible range. They range from the dry rock gardens (karesansui, according to Google) at Ryoanji to the faintly preposterous Golden Pavilion at Kinkakuji, which is, as the name suggests, covered in gold leaf.

We also got pretty much the full range of tourist experience-- we started at Daitokuji, which was pretty much empty (a couple of big tour groups came through one of the subtemples, but we were just about the only people in the other three), and moved on to Kinkakuji, which was completely packed. I got some nice pictures of the pavilion solely because I'm a foot taller than most of the 10,000 people who were taking pictures in front of me, and I could just shoot over the top of them.

Things we learned from this: 1) Huge crowds do not inspire a sense of Zen calm, 2) The raked-sand-and-rocks gardens don't really do it for me, 3) Slightly less famous attractions are often more enjoyable than the really big names, just because it's easier to get around and appreciate them. Though, to be fair, Ryoanji was not as mobbed as the guidebooks suggested it would be.

In the evening, we had dinner in the Gion area, strolled around some scenic old streets, and then went to the Gion Corner show, which is a one-hour swing through a bunch of traditional Japanese art forms aimed at tourists on a tight schedule. From this, we learned: Tourists suck. It's never a good sign when they start by announcing that the taing of photographs is permitted, but I didn't know quite how bad it was going to be. There was a woman a couple of rows in front of me who stood up to take a picture about every two minutes, and her gargantuan ass obscured the entire stage Then she would sit back down, and hold up the digital camera to show it to her companion, who was sitting right next to her, and had thus already seen what she was taking a picture of in the first place.

That, combined with the chattering woman behind us who Kate had to shush, did a lot to lower my opinion of humanity. Which is a pity, because the show had some good stuff in it. But, I suppose, that's what we get for going to the ultra-touristy thing in the first place.

We're off to Yokohama this afternoon, another shinkansen ride. I'm not sure what the Internet situation will be there, but I'll probably update at some point.

mata ne.