Japan Mar 2011 Day 3 – Tenryuji and Sagano

Prior to our trip, we did some info-scouting on tripadvisor and we had some wonderful advice from the good people there. One person I really want to pay tribute to is Kobekeith, an expert for the Kansai region on the website forum. His recommendations and suggestions were really superb and helped us a lot in planning our own itinerary.

After Otagi Nenbutsu-Ji, we took a cab back down to Arashiyama station. The walk back downtown is quite a long one and we didn’t want to upset the schedule for the rest of the day. We saw a cab  “straying” around the area when we were waiting at the bus stop and we flagged frantically to catch the driver’s attention. I’m pretty sure he was as glad to have chanced upon us as we’d found him!

Tenryu Ji 岚山 天龍寺 is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the “Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto“, located at the heart of Western Kyoto. So definitely worth a visit we thought…

Fam0us painting of Dharma

View from the 大方丈 Ohojo.

Panorama view of 曹源池 Sogen Pond created by Muso Soseki, the first abbot of this old monastery.

The infamous bamboo forest of Sagano 嵯峨野竹林. The atmosphere is quite magical really. Something profoundly ancient about it. And the snow adds on to the ambience making the air really dense and still. Visitors and tourists barely talked to each other, mere whispers. Only the occasional rustling of the leaves. The silence is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

Thankfully it was a weekday afternoon and the crowd was sparse.

嵯峨野 野の宫神社 Momomiya Jinja, hidden behind the bamboo grove.

“Waking up the gods” by tugging a huge chime bell to listen to your prayers, shinto gods are so busy all day and all year round

Nonomiya jinja is an old shinto shrine where Japanese emperors would send their princesses to undergo a “purification” ceremony.

Lanterns donated by devotees

Think slabs of wood with wishes written. These would be collated and burnt together periodically with the smoke carry one’s wishes to the gods above. Not so good if you want your wishes realised immediately!