On June 1st, me, my girlfriend and her parents went to Tenryuuji, which is considered a world heritage ([wikipedia article]). It’s basically a pond, surrounded by a series of little gardens of various kind. There’s also a building you can go into which has a pretty nifty dragon painted in the ceiling, but you’re not allowed to take pictures in there, so I can’t show you. I can show you pretty gardens, though.

The main area is the place with the gardens. The gardens actually surround this big mansion-like place, where monks do rites and stuff on occasion. Regular folks can’t actually go into the mansion on these days. Luckily this day wasn’t one of those days so we could go inside as well. Anyway, let’s start with the actual getting there.

Basically, walking to the actual garden area, you cross over this river-thingie (I don’t know its name — I suck as a virtual tour guide, don’t I) … it’s pretty, anyway.

The same river, from the side.

Something that seems to be a reoccuring phenomenon is that surrounding famous (sacred-ish) places are always other sacred-ish things. It’s as if the temples or sacred sites sort of grow over time. Of course, that’s most likely what’s happened too — these places are old! Over time, if something doesn’t disappear, it tends to take more and more focus, I’ve noticed.

Gate leading into the main area of Tenryuuji.

If I told you that this was a screenshot from Lord of the Rings, would you think I was lying?

Well, I would be, but it sure looks like something out of fantasy. Except for the little sign-post to the right of the statue, of course.

I’m not sure what I did different, but here’s another picture of the same statue. Doesn’t look as LotRish anymore but at least you can make out the details.

This is what you are met with as you enter the actual area. I don’t know what makes a bunch of gravel look so pretty but it sort of made you feel all cozy just looking at it.

Sort of has an unreal look to it, doesn’t it?

The mansion-like building, which is surrounded by the gardens.

A warning to sensitive viewers — if an abundance of greenery and flowery stuffs bother you, you may want to stop here.

There are no comments on the following series of pictures. I’m hoping you’ll see the contrast in between one spot and the next. The pictures are sorted chronologically, and while I have left out a lot of them (unfortunately), they sort of depict the path we took as we walked along the narrow path.

It’s hard to imagine that this is all the same place, the pictures taken within paces from each other.

Look, it’s an arm. My girlfriend’s, to be precise. She felt so pleased when she pulled that one off. *snicker*

I have a confession to make…

I absolutely adore bamboo…

I know it may sound a little odd, but I do. I don’t know why. It’s the same with deserts, actually. I adore deserts. Only difference is that I haven’t ever been to a desert. I have been to a bamboo forest, though. Now.

Speaking of bamboo and deserts, I kept being drawn towards things like the above, which makes me think of an oasis. A ring of pulsating life, or that kind of feeling over it.

The pond itself was more or less the highlight of the area in terms of beauty. So if you stuck with me through the green stuffs, here’s the reward:

There you have it.

I have some pictures of the mansion-place as well, but I’m going to stop here since this post is going to take weeks for people on dial-up to download as it is. I might post a few pictures out of the remaining ones in subsequent posts just to show you cool stuff, but for now, this is it.