I may have been a little ambitious with our travel plans. We stayed the first night in Tokyo near to a subway station. the plan was so we could walk there but then we were tired and tried to take a cab and he wouldn't take us, perhaps because it was so close? Certainly no English for the cab drivers.
Once we got to the hotel, I picked up my internet connection for the trip (mailed to the hotel). After that we could use google maps which shows the Japanese characters for a place on it for cab trips, that made life much easier, as did having a mobile internet in general.
First up was the Silver temple. we dropped our bags at our hotel and caught a cab. I had looked into a few tours but the problem with an organised 4 hour tour is that it doesn't wait for little people who don't feel like walking or get bored. So I figured with the money saved from no tours we could catch a couple of cabs.
The silver temple is on most but not all tourist agendas so it was pretty busy. As our first garden, it was also pretty mind blowing. Entrance to the temple below - even that looked amazing. had a momentary panic when camera wouldn't work, even on the iPhone, it all looks fabulous.
The silver temple is quite large, it has some gravel raked into cool patterns (see the large cone at the back right below, it is as big as a person - taller actually). The gardens then snake up a mountain.
Bridge just visible in the pic below.
Lots of ponds, lots of pine trees, lots of maples. Gardening heaven.
I loved the moss below - which was plentiful all over Kyoto. Kyoto even has a couple of famous moss gardens which you need to apply for tickets in advance and no under 18s, something for another time.
One thing that was awesome was the variety in the paths - stones of every pattern, bamboo fences, stone walls, every combination.
Finally as we came back down the hill, the silver temple itself.
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