Ryoanji

So before yesterday I hadn't visited a temple yet, and having been in Kyoto for almost a week, I decided that it was high time I did something about that. Ryoanji is a zen temple just across the road from university, so I took the train over and had a wander around.

To get to the main building you walk around the edge of this pond. You can't really see here, but there were some beautiful yellow flowers on the lilies.

This is Ryoanji's main attraction, a zen rock garden. You can sit on the wooden veranda and contemplate its meaning for hours (Apparently. I sat and contemplated for maybe 5 minutes)

And as a bonus, here's the view down my road as I arrived home. It's been very rainy yesterday and today (The dorm manager told me that it's a typhoon!) I've been enjoying the rain, it's much cooler than it has been.

 

*edit* So it turns out the river flooded across town! And my friends said they were all woken up by emergency texts about it last night (I don't have a phone yet). Hopefully nothing's damaged too badly! It's really ok up here though, in case anyone was worrying ~