Sourinji Temple and Kyoto-Ryoza-Gokoku Shrine

I have to give credit to Naomi on this day and well, for a lot she has to put up with on this trip with my detouring. It would end up taking about 3 hours or more to get to our destination than was planned, when it should have been about a 30min walk from the first shrine we went too. Your the best Naomi!

As I mentioned, I got sidetracked. Big long path leading to a shrine, so off we went! This is the Sourinji Temple. Naomi had never been before so that was a nice change too. Alas, as goes the theme of the day, the main parts were under renovation/restoration! But we could still see some of it anyway. This temple was built in the 9th century, but info about it was scarce.

First is the shot of the long road up, then the main gate. Inside you can see some small buildings and a place to wash your hands, which I thought was cool again. Really this was all you could see, as I said the main place was totally sealed up and covered in a huge tarp for its restoration work. A shame cause its right on the hillside too.

After this we went down some small roads which led us yet once again, off target! Here is some of the shots along the way of various things.

I first noticed a giant Buddha statue which got us locked into the next course. You can see that here! We didn't actually end going to this place, which is turns out was built in memorial to the 2 million soldiers who died for Japan during WW2.

We instead kept walking up the hill beside it, the very long and steep hill where cars were jammed bumper to bumper, to the Kyoto-Ryoza-Gokoku Shrine. This is actually a big cemetary with memorials for warriors who helped shape Japan since the Meiji area until WW2. Gokoku shrines are found all over Japan as well.

This one is special as Sakamoto Ryoma is buried here. He was a samurai who was a visionary that tried to help build a Japan without the use of feudal lords all over and of modernization. He was a very good diplomat and helped bring together provinces in an effort to help overthrow the Shogunate. He later was crucial in the negotiations with the final Shogun to that led to him stepping down and the beginning of the Meiji restoration. Sadly, he was assassinated shortly before he saw this take place, at the age of 33. He is also often considered one of the father of the Japanese Navy as he worked to help build a modern naval force with the help of western powers.

The whole place is actually on the mountain. Its really quite nice. First up is a monument dedicated to the Artillery during I believe only WW2, and the Army Air Force of WW2. After is a bunch of monuments dedicated to different theaters of war, mostly all WW2.

You might think its weird to take pictures in graveyard, I sure thought it was. But here everyone was doing it, video taping and snapping pictures like Brad Pitt just walked past. Guess it depends on how long ago the people died.

This is a monument to the Army. After is some various old graves.

This is Sakamoto Ryoma's grave. His on the left.

As I mentioned this was on a mountainside, so right behind you this was the view you got.

The following are a few shots from the graveyard. Its basically broken down by province with a few monuments to soldiers in each. Pretty neat, and a nice place to see really.

After we left here we headed, finally to our main destination. On the way we went through a huge tourist trap shopping street. It was totally jammed pack with people. Many nice things though, so we did some window shopping. It was also about 2 30 and we had not ate since our starbucks. Some of the stores had a bunch of free samples, so we loaded up on those as well as some free iced green tea. Delicious!

Here is some shots of the area.

This led straight to our destination, the Kiyomizu-dera Temple.