Kinkakuji is on the outskirts of the city, in the North West, so I got there by bus from Nijo Castle as it would have taken a while to walk and the Kyoto subway doesn't reach that far. Like I've said before, the buses in Kyoto are pretty cheap at around 240 yen fixed rate to go anywhere in the city. You could also get a ticket for unlimited travel for like 500 or 600.
Anyway, after the bus ride, I got off at Kinkakuji and walked up. Pretty much as soon as you've paid you get to see the golden Pavillion itself:
Kinkakuji, like many Japanese shrines, castles, or temples, is a reconstruction. In Kinkakuji's case, the last time was in 1950 and it was burnt down by a novice monk. Yukio Mishima wrote about it (obviously his fictionalised version) in his novel Kinkakuji. Side note, Kinkakuji is a pretty good read, guys.
Kinkakuji looks a little unreal, almost toy like because it's covered in gold. And you can't get up close to it or go in. This is definitely a bonus when it comes to pictures though: basically at the first viewing point there is a rugby scrum of people taking selfies and pictures. If you wait, you will have a chance to get to the front and have your couple of minutes worth of picture taking time though. The "mystical atmosphere" that some guidebooks had talked about was not there at all, but I managed to make it look calmer in the pictures.
Kinkakuji, like many Japanese shrines, castles, or temples, is a reconstruction. In Kinkakuji's case, the last time was in 1950 and it was burnt down by a novice monk. Yukio Mishima wrote about it (obviously his fictionalised version) in his novel Kinkakuji. Side note, Kinkakuji is a pretty good read, guys.
Kinkakuji looks a little unreal, almost toy like because it's covered in gold. And you can't get up close to it or go in. This is definitely a bonus when it comes to pictures though: basically at the first viewing point there is a rugby scrum of people taking selfies and pictures. If you wait, you will have a chance to get to the front and have your couple of minutes worth of picture taking time though. The "mystical atmosphere" that some guidebooks had talked about was not there at all, but I managed to make it look calmer in the pictures.
Having moaned about the people, it wasn't an unmanageable level at all and I'd still recommend going! Maybe at the start or end of the day it would be more quiet. I'd definitely go back (spoiler alert: I did).
And I treated myself to some aesthetically pleasing matcha ice cream :)
After Kinkakuji, I decided to walk along to Ryoanji (another place high on my bucket list) so that's the next post~
After walking round the temple and lake, there is a garden and some more temple buildings.
Thanks for reading!
-Amy xoxo
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