Kyoto 2017: Kinkakuji Temple (金閣寺)

To finish up my time in northern Kyoto I stopped by Kinkakuji Temple, aka the Golden Pavilion. Like Ginkakuji Temple in eastern Kyoto, Kinkakuji Temple used to be the retirement villa of a shogun that was turned into a temple after the shogun died. Unlike Ginkakuji, however, Kinkakuji earns its name because the main building’s two upper levels are covered in gold leaf. Sadly, Kinkakuji has burned down many times and only the reconstructed main building remains of the former villa. Several other buildings can be found at Kinkakuji but these are all later additions. If you have some spare coins you can try to toss them for good luck at statues in the back of the temple.

Embarrassingly, I almost met with disaster while visiting Kinkakuji. After photographing the temple’s main building I switched out my camera’s depleted battery, only to discover that I had forgotten to charge my backup batteries. By switching around batteries and being extra judicious on camera usage I was able to photograph the rest of the temple complex but I came really close to being completely out of juice.