After that we decided to head for the ‘Silver’ pavilion but on the corner we found a fast food place where we had some lunch. It worked as in Kanazawa with buying tickets at a machine and we got a nice curry.
Then we found the right bus to take us to the Silver Pavilion – Ginkakuji. From the bus-stop we had a bit of a walk, the last 4 minutes of which were up a narrow street with gift shops lining it on both sides. Unlike so many countries there was no-one trying to persuade one to buy – very restful!
The pavilion is not covered in silver as one might expect. It was established in 1482 by Yoshimasa as part of the Higashiyama culture and both that and Zen culture can be seen here. One enters along a path lined by 3.5m high hedges of bamboo and camellias – not in flower today.
In front of the pavilion there is a gravel area which has been beautifully raked into waves and a mound supposed to represent Mt. Fuji.
Again there was a walkway round the garden which is very pleasant but there were far too many people to be able to really appreciate the beauty and peace that it echos.
From there we took a couple of busses back to the station and our hotel.
This post is an extract of my mother’s travel journal written during a tour of Japan in 2014.
travel tales 