Kinkakuji - Golden Temple

A very relaxing morning, with a small breakfast and coffee while Vela finalised all her visa documents for Europe and the UK. After lunch we headed out to one of Kyoto's main attractions, Kinkakuji.

Being so late on the day, by the time we arrived there was almost no longer for tickets or to get through the main gate. So we were able to quickly get to a viewing point of the temple over the lake. Vela has been reading a book about this temple, which has burned down multiple times and been rebuilt faithfully to the original temple. The most recent burning was an arson attack, and when they rebuilt it they added gold leaf. Apparently 20kg of gold leaf was added, worth around 1.6million NZD.

We walked around the temple complex, which includeda pretty little waterfall. We came across a coin tossing game where we donated a few coins. After a wild first throw, Vela's second leaves squarely in the middle of the tin cup, one-upping everyone who was aiming for the larger stone bowl. As we were leaving the complex, we got a final view of the top of the temple over the trees, where you can see the Phoenix figurehead silhouetted against the blue sky. With being burnt down so many times, the Phoenix feels like the right figurehead to me.

Afterwards we went for a wander around some side streets. Vela found a sweet treat of ice cream and rice dumplings with a sweet soy side, but ended up not liking it - Nathan's benefit!

For dinner we met up with Nathan's Aunty Jeanette, who just happens to be travelling Japan at the same time as us. Jeanette also brought her friend Pam along. We had yakitori chicken, and I think we ended up eating pretty much a whole chicken in the process. Very cool to be able to meet up halfway across the world!Read more