This is the parking lot at the Heian Kaikan (sp?) Hotel that we stayed at in Kyoto. Note the two levels. If your car is parked on top, you had to arrange for the bottom car to be moved out and then have your car lowered to the ground.
This is a picture at the beginning of our walk through the Tenryuji Temple. This temple is the head temple of the Tenryuji branch of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. The Rinzai beliefs include zazen (the practice of sitting without thinking of anything. I'm familiar with this--I do it at work whenever the boss calls a meeting.) and also zoan (the study of puzzling questions).
Here are several women working in the gardens at Tenryuji Temple. Originally (about 650 years ago), Tenryuji was not a temple; it was Emperor Kameyama's villa. His grandson, Emperor Godaigo, received his education at this villa. After Godaigo's death in 1339, The Tenryuji Temple was established in memory of Emperor Godaigo. Also, Tenryuji was about 4 square miles in area, but a series of wars reduced the area and destroyed all of its 150 temples were destroyed by fire. Tenryuji Temple as it stands today was reconstructed in 1990.
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