The Kinkakuji (金閣寺) is one of the must see places in Kyoto. I normally tend to shorten sightseeing as you can't see all and if don't take enough time you don't see anything but simply runs past all the beautiful spots you might like to enjoy. So choosing what to see is very important. Kinkakuji is such a choice. Another choice could be Ginkakuji (銀閣寺). Kinkakuji (金閣寺) means Golden Pavilion Temple and Ginkakuji (銀閣寺) means Silver Pavilion Temple. The building is quite new (1955), as the original structure from 1397 has burnt down in 1950.
Please excuse the quality of the picture, but I had a very bad camera in 1975.
I merely use it to show the difference.
And now the new picture at about the same angle.
Maybe this was it looks even nicer.
There's also a tea pavilion with calligraphy, which is hard to decipher. The interpreter didn't know which character it is. I just couldn't resist the temptation, but didn't find it in Nelson's Japanese-English Character Dictionary, then changed to a Chinese calligraphy dictionary (中国书法大字典), where I found the character, which is written in grass script: 华, pronounced hua in Chinese and ge or ka in Japanese, meaning flower, shining, brilliant, gorgeous, and also China.
Leaving the compound you come past a Shinto shrine and also a tea house to drink mocha (も茶),
the tea which is also drunk at the tea ceremony.
Other blogposts about this travel to Japan:
Shinkansen (新幹線) http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/04/shinkansen.html
Japan and Garbage http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/04/japan-and-garbage.html
Small Shrines Along the Road http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/04/small-shrines-along-road.html
Cherry Blossoms (桜の花) http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/04/cherry-blossoms.html
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