Friday: Nanzen-ji - Now that's a gate

The great temple complex of Nanzen-ji is just a 10 minute walk away, so we go there for our last stop.  Sheila caught a cold last night, but is doing all this walking and temple-ing nonetheless - she's made of hardy English stock.

The most impressive thing about Nanzen-ji is it's Sanmon or "Mountain Gate"  Every temple has an impressive one of these gates, and the bigger the temple or monastery, the bigger the gate.  This one is massive, famously so.  And unlike any of the other gates I've seen, this one we're allowed to climb up.  So here's the gate:



At the top, a nice view of Kyoto one one side and the temple complex on the other.




Also on top, an alter with the Buddha and his 16 arhats - they're in the back there in the gloam:


Inside the complex a nice rock garden,


and beautiful hallways.


Here are some classy wishing sticks.  I like that they gave an example of a wish, nudging you gently away from your first thought of a new ipad or Hamilton tickets.  


Love these guys, Kanzan (on the left) and Jittoku in Japanese, or Hanshan and Shide in Chinese.  You may know Hanshan as the eccentric Cold Mountain poet.  Shide is one of the kitchen helpers at a mountain temple in China, and these guys are buddies, eating scraps from the kitchen, carousing around, often shown laughing.  


I had the evening to myself tonight, and found an udon place - a really good one - around the corner.  Oden is the name of the restaurant.

Salad came first - that's miso past in the corner.  


Then, the a little feast, noodles in cold water, that I deposit into the hot soup on the left, and then dress with beautiful little pyramids of ginger, green onion, daikon, sesame seeds, some kind of spiced gobo I think.  And there's this revelation - tempura with pink salt.  I'll never eat tempura with dipping sauce again.  With salt it doesn't get all mushy, but stays crunchy.  








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