July 15th // Kinkaku-ji (Culture) & Nijo Castle (History)

Kinkaku-ji

Kinkaku-ji

Today we visited Kinaku-ji and Nijo Castle. I woke up at 7:00 though it was hard to get everyone else out of bed.  We went down stairs for breakfast and boarded the bus for Kinaku-ji Castle. We arrived at 9:00 and began exploring. 

On the tour we learned that it is a Zen Buddhist temple. It is one of the most popular buildings in Japan, attracting a large number of visitors annually. It is designated as a National Historic Site, a National Landscape, and it is one of 17 locations making up the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto which are also World Heritage Sites.

Nijo Castle

After the tour around Kinaku-ji and a nice lunch, we proceeded to Nijo Castle. The castle consists of two concentric rings of fortifications, the Ninomaru Palace, the ruins
of the Honmaru Palace, various support buildings and several gardens. The surface area of the castle is 275,000 square meters and only 8,000 square meters is occupied by buildings. In 1601, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, ordered all the feudal lords in Western Japan to contribute to the construction of Nijo Castle, which was completed during the reign of Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1626. Parts of Fushimi Castle, such as the main tower and the karamon, were moved here in 1625. Its purpose was built as the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns. 

After returning from our excursion to Kinkaku-ji and Nijo we decided to watch a movie. We watched the last Godzilla movie probably the most appropriate seeing as we were in Japan. To conclude this blog post today was a very interesting day.

Written By Sirvaad