Saturday, 26 December 2015

Boxing Day Bike Adventure, Part 2




After Ginkaku-Ji, it was time for a meander down the Philosopher's Path. This is a delightful area, with pathways leading up to hillside temples at every turn.







Reaching the end of the path, I turned off in search of lunch and found... okonomiyaki!








Refuelled, I continued on and found myself at the Great Gate of Nanzen-ji.
I chose not to go into the temple or climb the gate today, but instead parked my bike and wandered into the hills behind the temple, where I found this unexpected aqueduct.
Climbing up behind the aqueduct and following the water along, I came to a hill with a view over the city and... what is that enormous orange torii gate??


A statue of some dude who might have had something to do with building the Lake Biwa canal through the mountains, or maybe not.
The Biwa canal basin.  This canal, I was later to discover, runs all the way from Lake Biwa on the other side of the mountains, through a tunnel, and into the basin before entering the network of canals around the Okazaki Park area, supplying Kyoto with fresh water.
And here it is: the huge O-Torii of Heian-Jingu!  I had never seen this before, not having been out to the east side of the city on previous trips, and thus had no idea what it was when I saw it from the mountain-side. Now I have seen it, it's amazing that I didn't know it was there -- it really is massive.




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