I Stopped At...

2008/03/08 I visited this place in my first long trip in Japan. It was a memorial trip with all the Japanese learnign students of our university took part in. This temple below is called Kinkakuji with the meaning golden pagoda. The origin of the name is, as you can see, the golden plated temples. This is a very famous tourist spot in Kyoto. This site is photographed for its beauty and a famous landscape picture in calendars and so on. We, the students, were sitting for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 2 in the end of the year. So our Japnese teacher wanted us to write  a pledge for the God of academy. Below are the wooden plates with our names written on it . Well, as a result of this and good hard work of ours, as far as I remember we all passed the level 2 in the year 2008!!! All Rights Reserved.

2009/08/09 The Ryouanji premises This temple is an old Buddhist temple in Kyoto. This was famous as a meditating center and still is.  This temple is situated a little away from the normal temple city area. But this has not been a reason in the least  to stop visitors coming. This is situated in the middle of a large green woods with a beautiful pond in the middle. What we visit as the Ryouanji is only one portion of what it really was. A trail lined with beautiful maple trees and sakura led us to the main hall of Rouanji. As it is seen in the picture below the steps leading to the hall is roofed with green maple leaves. It was so serene and calm just reminding me of the serenity and the calmness of the Buddhist temples back home(Sri Lanka). The entrance Once you have entered the premises, you see an enlarged photo of the famous rock garden on the inner entrance. Then a model of the rock garden is kept for exhibition....

The Famous Kiyomizudera  I was in Kyoto in 2009 on a trip and this famous Kiyomizu-dera was one stop. This temple is one of the most famous temples in Kyoto. This is one of the UNESCO heritages in Japan and has a great historical value.This Kiyomizudera is a Buddhist temple situated in the east of Kyoto. Below are some of the snapshots I captured on my way. The above metal sculpture at the entrance to the temple . There are two such dragon fountains at the entrance so that the entering people can clean there hands. This is one of the wooden pavilions that can be seen from the main pavilion. The famous main pavilion The famous main pavilion that has been the spot for so many photographs. This same angle is a very famous landscape photo. It is beautiful in Spring when it is covered with pink blossoms of Sakura and in the autumn, beautiful red and yellow autumn leaves. The waterfall Above waterfall is the origin of the name f...

09/08/2009 We left early the hotel to the Kyoto station to buy a free pass to travel inside the Kyoto town. There were several types of tickets.One was a tour bus ticket where the routes were already decided. It was not a free plan trip so we decided to give it up. Next we thought of buying the one day pass of 1000yen which is said to be have discount entrance fee coupons attached. But then again we were not going through the Arashiyama area so that this ticket was also not comparatively cheap. we finally decide on the free bus ride ticket of 500 yen. We also got a city bus route map making traveling in Kyoto very simple. We started with 東寺(Toji). It is a 5 floored pagoda which can also be seen from the shinkansen which means the bullet train in Japanese. The entrance fee was 60yen and we decided to not to enter the premises. So we just took the photographs of the pagoda from the outside the sacred area and took the bus towards Ryoanji. 2.1 Toji Temple 龍安寺　(Ryoanji) is an...