Ryoanji

 Ryoanji  (notice the "ji" for temple) is a couple of miles from Kinkaku-ji.   We walked to the bus stop just a couple hundred meters from the exit from Kinkaku-ji, but the bus appeared to be quite a while in coming, and there was a big crowd ahead of us.   So we walked the distance, taking in an art gallery or two along the way.

 

 The grounds here are also fairly extensive at around 120 acres, and has been the trust of  a Zen Buddhist sect for just over a thousand years.   The temple grounds includes two ponds.

Japanese Maples,  Irises and lilly pads predominate the Mirror Pond.

 What pagan temple would be complete without a pagan idol?
  I knew he had no power, though, because he was wearing no college football jersey.

 The most famous part of the temple complex is this zen rock garden which is maintained daily by the monks with rakes.  They pretend that the lines have some meaning.   I have to confess that my cynical mind thinks its all boogey-baloney, made up to impress the easily-impressed.   However, I do admit that the place has been put together and is run in such a way as to convey a peacefulness.   There is no basketball goal at either end, and you simply are not allowed onto the gravel.    There are 15 large rocks in the gravel beds, and supposedly you can only view 14 at one time due to their arrangement, unless you have attained enlightenment.   I say "give me a mirror" and I can fix that.

 As with a lot of temple and castle locations, especially the ones with wooden floors,  you must remove your shoes when entering the buildings.   Here several of our crew contemplate the meaning of it all while sitting on the edge of the Hojo.   After the hike from Kinkaku-ji, a rest for the feet was welcome.

 I always found the bridges, buildings, roofs, roads, monuments and other man-made edifices quite a curiosity.  If you click on the picture, you can see better the details of how the Hojo roof construction is made from several layers of thinly sliced wooden shakes pressed together as a composite.

 At this fountain, you are invited to wash your mouth and hands to prepare to enter the tea house.  I politely declined.  I had enough washing my mouth out when I was in Jr. High.    Out in the country, where my mom and dad grew up, and I spent significant time growing up, we called it a "dipper", and it was a measure of  how you couldn't afford indoor plumbing.

 The Teahouse apparently accepts only clean customers.

This photo is awful and out of focus, but it is the best of four shots I took.  I guess there must have been an undetected earthquake that affected my  camerawork at that very instant.   The Hojo is essentially one large room subdivided by sliding panels

 The panels are decorated with traditional Japanese art.

Leaving Ryoanji, you walk along the opposite side of the Mirror Pond.