#golden-temple

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Amritsar, India: Uncover the City's Rich History and Culture

Did you know that over 100,000 people visit Amritsar daily? This vibrant city in Punjab, India, is a treasure trove of culture and history. Known as the spiritual heart of Sikhism, it draws visitors from around the globe. Its blend of ancient traditions and modern energy makes it a must-see destination. Golden_Temple_Amritsar_Gurudwara by Shubhashish, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons At the…

Amritsar, India: Uncover the City's Rich History and Culture

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The Golden Temple in Punjab, India (© Kimberley Coole/Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images) © (Bing Australia)

The Golden Temple in Punjab, India (© Kimberley Coole/Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images) © (Bing Australia)

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Obon 3

First off, I'm double posting today, so check Obon 2 out as well.Today's adventure is in Kyoto.  The old capital of Japan.  The city is so famous historically that you can't help but bump into things older than the US.  It is actually a little weird.  Everything there is several hundred years old so the awesomeness fades away because everything is like that.  Still, it was pretty amazing.[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The golden temple!"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Medium" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hitokiri/2801733010/">[/caption]<p style="text-align: left;"> We had an agenda of about 6 things.  We knew it wouldn't be possible, but at least we have it for next time.  The day started at around 10.  We arrived in Kyoto in about 45 minutes after I put us on the local train, bought our bus pass, and set off.  The first stop was the Golden Pavillion, or Kinkaku-ji.

<p style="text-align: left;">Now Kinkaku-ji is a temple that is covered in gold leaf.  So it is actually gold.  I thought it would just be the temple with some neat artifacts inside.  I was wrong.  It was a huge area with lots of buildings and smaller shrines and gardens.  The temple itself was beautiful.  Simple as that.  Walking around and seeing all the manicured gardens was wonderful too.  Somehow the monks use moss instead of grass and it is gorgeous.[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The zen garden of Ryoan-ji"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Medium" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hitokiri/2810520510/">[/caption]<p style="text-align: left;">After that we headed to Ryoan-ji.  This temple is famous for its rock garden which is the most famous one.  It also was an expansive place with a small lake, lots of buildings, immaculate gardens, and of course the one zen garden.  I'm not going to pretend to understand the meaning, but when you sit in front of it, you really do calm down and start to think.  Maybe thats the point. <p style="text-align: left;">By now it was getting late in the afternoon, we were hungry, and we realized that all of the other sites were closing.  So we headed to Gion.  Gion is famous for being like Old Kyoto, but in a different way.  All the buildings look old, the streets are made of stone, Geisha and Maiko still work around here, and restaurants are non-descript, very expensive, and all Japanese.  The whole area is very pretty and great to walk around in.  We saw a couple of Geisha in taxis or scuttling into hotels to avoid people.  Around Gion the restaurants provide the ability to hire a Geisha, but they cost a fortune.  You can hire a Maiko (Geisha in training) for a smaller fortune.  It was still amazing to see this stuff.  The restaurants served things I couldn't identify for about 10,000 yen a person ($100).  If you can afford a good time at a restaurant there, you can probably splurge on a Geisha for entertainment.  Probably.<p style="text-align: left;">After Gion we found a little restaurant called Cafe New Zealand that served fish and chips.  It was so good to eat fried food that it made us a little sick.  We were glad for the rest, but we had to hurry to catch Daimon-ji, but we didn't know where to go.  We asked the waiter, who in turn asked all of the guests, wrote the locations on the map, and showed us how to get there fastest.<p style="text-align: left;">The first place was a hotel.  For this event you can pay a hotel to let you on the roof to view Daimon-ji.  Daimon-ji is an ancient festival where they light Kanji into the mountains surrounding Kyoto.  Nobody really knows why because its too old to remember.<p style="text-align: left;">The hotel turned us away because we weren't guests.  So we walked outside and decided to follow the flow of people.  It was dark, so we didn't know where we wound up exactly, but we wound up in a large gravel street with a perfect view of the "Dai" (大) Kanji.  There were some professional photographers there doing things I never thought of with a camera, and I felt small.  Partially because their tripods were 7 feet tall.<p style="text-align: left;">After this we were exhausted and went home to Osaka, and fell asleep happily.  The next morning we checked out and headed back to Nagoya by bus and then to Gifu by train.  It was an exhausting, wonderful trip.<p style="text-align: left;">[flickr album=72157606958851607 num=50]</p>