Wednesday 5 March 2014

Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion), Kyoto

If you Google places to go in Kyoto, most likely you'll see this place. Kinkakuji (金閣寺, Golden Pavilion), a Zen temple in northern Kyoto whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf. Hence the name.

We took the bus from our hotel. No need to change..just straight to the entrance, which was very convenient.


Kinkakuji can be accessed from Kyoto Station by direct Kyoto City Bus number 101 or 205 in about 40 minutes and for 220 yen. Alternatively, it can be faster and more reliable to take the Karasuma Subway Line to Kitaoji Station (15 minutes, 250 yen) and take a taxi (10 minutes, around 900 yen) or bus (10 minutes, 220 yen, bus numbers 101, 102, 204 or 205) from there to Kinkakuji.

Nahh copied the information from Japan Guide for you. 


Selfie on the bus!


And we arrived! Beautiful autumn colors still. We were lucky to be able to see them and take photos. 

Admission price was Y400/RM 12 per person. Still ok. Definitely worth a trip.


That's the entrance ticket. 




Because I SPK never seen a Haagen Daz vending machine. Heheh. Didn't buy. We bought another green tea ice cream cone instead. 



There were tourists all around (as usual) so squeeze in and take your shot. This shot turned out not bad eh?


Saw some people throwing coins here and decided to join in as well. Hehe..dunno if we're supposed to make wish or what. 




There are quite a few stalls selling souvenirs. We bought some snacks..the wasabi nuts were soo spicy. Damn syiok! Dad loves them. I love them too but baby doesn't. Haih.

Overall, I would say this is definitely worth a trip. So beautiful and serene. Simply point your camera anywhere and can get good photos.

There's a silver pavilion (Ginkakuji) as well but we didn't go to that one as I didn't want to cram too many temples in my visit. After this, we went to Fushimi Inari. Always wanted to visit. Did you watch Memoirs of a Geisha? The scene where little Sayuri (or Chiyo as she was known then) went to make a wish at the temple after Chairman gave her the coin? Yah that temple. Update next time. 

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