Kinkaku-ji the Golden Pavilion of Kyoto

Kinkaku-ji, famously known as the Golden Pavilion. Founded in 1397 it was a villa purchased by Shogun Yoshimitsu. His grandson built the other famous Silver Pavilion Ginkaku-ji on the other side of Kyoto.
*read about it here*

Early in the morning, we took a hotel limo there. The staffs pronounced our destination clearly to avoid confusion between the Silver and Golden Pavilion.
Kinkaku-ji
Ginkaku-ji
There was a time, I was so confused between which one is what. Well you don't wanna arrive at the incorrect destination because both are located opposite of each other.


When we arrived, it was still very very early and the crowds was thin. Kinkaku-ji is one of the die die must visit attraction in Kyoto so u can imagine the throngs of ppl and this will hinder any excellent photo opportunities.

Ladies clad in beautiful kimonos walked briskly on the gravel road, in their lil white slipper. I don't know how do they learn to walk this fast in such dress code. When I finally wore kimono, I realised it wasn't as easy as it seems. This will be in a separate posting :)))


Alwiz ready with her notes and books.....prepared myself to be questioned by Mr. JS.....Yea I must do my homeworks before visiting every attractions. This made traveling even more fun.

The sky was overcast on that day, otherwise it would be so stunning. The reflection of Kinkaku-ji on the water. We've seen pics of the Golden Pavilion on the books, brochures and www but seeing it live was something of a whole different dimension.

While there's not many tourists and local visitors around....time to snap snap snap. The view was all ours to conquered. JS was really eppy there isn't anyone else fighting for the perfect spot with him.


We walked around this zen garden to capture different perspective of the Golden Pavilion. The garden was so well manicured and designed to complement the beauty of the Golden Pavilion.


Finally JS decided this is still the best spot!!!!! Him doing the Shogun pose again :P

It was difficult to use his Leica M series....bcoz it was a manual focus camera. For an idiot like me, it took quite a fair bit of practice, common sense and passion. But u know Monkey...I'm too lazy to practice, too hyper to pay attention and have common sense and compared to JS, my passion in photography is somewhat shallow.

The top 2 floors of the pavilion is all wrapped in Gold Leaf. Yes as in pure real gold. The landscape and garden was designed with "borrowed" scenery to further enhance the beauty of its original architecture.

its lake consist of 10 different smaller islands, each with their own manicured trees or plant. I noticed that the pine trees here are of a different species. Its pine needle were shorter and finer.

Then we proceeded to the Tea Garden for some tea and sweets. I insisted that we take the bench with a red umbrella.....JS rolled his eyes 5 times. Women!!!

yummy frothy fragrant green tea...it was so so good :))))))))
for 500 yen you get a bowl of freshly made tea and a piece of sweets.

While waiting for JS to kepoh around photographing and documenting the surrounding....I made notes. Well I realised for long trips like this, you really need to make notes, else you can't really remember wat's wat....

a few steps from the tea garden was this Fudo Hall that housed the statue of Buddha protector. Since it was so happening, we joined in the fun with the rest of the Japanese.

All the "Chibi Maruko" students were trying to get some whiff of the incense. It is believed that the smoke from the incense will protect your from illness.

Lil Notti Monkey was more interested in creatin havoc :P
Ker-tong ker-tong ker-tong
I know....u r not supposed to simple "wake" the deities...but I did anyway to the horror of local visitors.

pull the rope and ring the bell....clap twice to awake the god and make ur wishes. Kinkaku-ji is really a must visit whenever u are in Kyoto. Its beauty hold itself in every season, when it's hidden among the autumn foliage, or all decked in snow...or during the beautiful cherry blossom hanami season...and even during its green lush of summer.

Come here early in the morning or late afternoon just to avoid the crowd. There are numerous ways to get here, be it by a 40 mins bus ride froom Kyoto Station, or 15 mins subway line followed by 10 mins taxi....or just be lazy bums like us...catch a cab :P which is also the most expensive way to travel. The truth was, we weren't lazy, we just wanted to avoid the crowd and be there as early as 9am.

Opens daily from 9am till 5pm.