Saturday: The Very Golden Pavilion

When I met him in the morning Yuho asked:  "Are you templed out?  After two days they can all start to look the same."  Nope, not me.  At least not yet.  I've studied up a little on the major temples, and spent the whole 11.5 hours from Seatle to Seoul reading the excellent "Kyoto:  A Cultural History," so I've got a context into which I can put the different temples into and that helps me see not just the beauty of a place, but where it fits in the story of the city and the story of Zen.

So we're headed to Kinkaku-ji, and the Golden Pavilion in the middle of it.  But first lunch. As good as it looks, and together with a Coca Cola, $10.


We're both wearing samue pants and jackets and both have our monks cueball heads, and according to Yuho that sometimes gets us into these places for free.  We tried, but not today.
The Golden Pavilion is for sure over the top, but it's also for sure genuinely beautiful, shimmering there above the water, surrounded by gentle scenery.  You'd think it would scream, a golden temple.  But it didn't, it just glowed like sunshine.   








Yuho tells me they recently replaced the gold leaf on the temple - it's significantly thicker now than it used to be.  These temples bring in millions of dollars a year.  I didn't take any photos of the throngs, but throngs there were.  According to Yuho many, many more than there were even 10 years ago.  The rising middle class in China has contributed to that boom - he said likely half of those we saw were Chinese tourists - they have money enough to travel now, and a low value yen helps.  

We wondered what kind of security they have overnight - I mean, that rooster on top is probably worth a penny or two.  Yuho tells me it's a phoenix, rising from the dead, just like we die and rise again in our Zen practice.  


I liked a little boathouse humbly sticking out the back of the pavilion.  It looked so sweet and unassuming.



After the garden path a pavilion of another sort - the sales pavilion.  All kinds of things for sale -  I bought a little bottle of sake with genuine gold flakes floating around in it.  Lots of good luck charms, and trinkets with fortunes in them.  If you don't like your fortune, here's the box for you to deposit it (it's bad luck just to throw it away).  






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