kyoto (11.23.08)

well, its been getting colder here as of late, finally spurring the leaves into their magnificent color transformation. i am always amazed by this comparatively late change: in the northeast, we tended to play in piles of leaves toward halloween, as i recall; toward december, the trees would be bare. yet in japan, toward december is when they are reaching their peak...
so this weekend i decided to visit with my good friends in Gifu, and travel with them to different places--enjoying the crisp air and vivid colors.
saturday i went down to ise, which (for reasons i cannot recall) is one of the most sacred places in japan. i have always wanted to visit, and have a look. unfortunately, its so sacred that most temples are inaccessible, hidden behind tall fences. so while many Japanese seem to feel a certain amount of contentment by being close to such structures, i was silently wishing that my friend and i had chosen to visit elsewhere.
the next day, i went to kyoto with another friend; we ended up doing a lot of walking. (actually, we decided that perhaps walking would be faster than taking the buses--as it was a holiday weekend, it was farily crowded; the lines simply waiting for the bus were pretty crazy.)
still, we managed to make it to this particular gem--kinkakuji, or "the golden pavillion". though it had been a fairly cloudy day, right as we made it to the temple, the sun came out and really set the gold exterior beautifully alight, transforming it into a spectacular gem set in the middle of the pond.