2015-05-01, Kyoto Botanical Gardens and Fine Arts Garden

For Yoshie's last day we decided to go to Kyoto, but since it's the beginning of a nationwide vacation period we didn't want to go to the areas where the famous sites are.  So we decided to go to the botanical gardens, I've never been there but took the subway that's located at the entrance so I knew where it was.

We had a rather bumpy start.  Yoshie packed up her things, we would find a locker in Kyoto, and we rushed out to catch a bus.  Got to the train station, on the train, and after about 2 stops Yoshie realized she didn't have her phone!  We got off at the next stop, went back, explained our situation to the ticket person who kindly didn't make us buy another ticket and said we could just get back on when we returned.  Went to the bus stop just as a bus pulled up.  But it wasn't a bus I recognized and I couldn't read the sign.  I should have gotten on and asked but I didn't figuring Yoshie was reading the sign.  As it pulled away she said where it was going - we could have taken it!  Instead we ended up waiting another 30 minutes.  Got home, found the phone, had to wait for another bus back to the station, an hour on the train and we were in Kyoto by about 12:30 or 1.  We found a locker in the station and then decided to have lunch before we went into the gardens.

We ate in this British pub with Beatles music playing in the background.

Yoshie

My lunch - gratin (mac and cheese) with a little ham and onions - yum.

Yoshie had the special - a hamburg (different than a hamburger) and fried shrimp.
She didn't care for hers, thought it was frozen not made there.

 

Then we went into the botanical garden.  I was quite surprised.  With all the incredibly cared for and manicured gardens in Japan, and especially in Kyoto, this one was not well cared for at all.  (It only cost $2 to enter so maybe they don't make enough to hire more employees.)  The spent blooms were still on all the tulips, azaleas, and rhododendrons.  And except for the French and British gardens the whole place was pretty wild.

There were rows of peonies but only these and a few red ones have opened.
In another week or two they'll all be open.

These were all over in the shady areas.

I thought this was a gorilla but it's a sumo wrestler.  Why is it in a garden or playground???  I don't know.

We didn't go into the conservatory.  Another time.

This will be pretty when the irises are blooming.

Although these are Japanese maples the area and the feel reminded
me of the swamps in Florida/SC - but without the mosquitoes (for now anyway).

We were really tired after not that much walking - I think it was a combination of all the miles walked in last few days - 6 - 8 a day, and the heat and the sun (around 85F).  We decided to go next door to what I thought was a fine arts museum.  I'm not a fan of art museums but they are air conditioned, and I'd noticed it was only $1 to enter (strange but the garden was only $2).  As soon as we walked into the entrance way I knew it was built by Tadao Ando.  He was the architect of that beautiful place I went to on Awaji Island before I left Tokushima - The Miracle World of Plants.  So I was quite excited.  We walked down paths through the concrete and water and again I was surprised that I really liked the building even thought I hate concrete, glass and steel.  But the curves, the water and the way he incorporated replicas of famous scrolls and paintings was quite soft and relaxing.

When we got to the bottom we thought we had missed the entrance to the museum.  We started back up and came to the exit.  Finally we realized that it wasn't a museum.  It's the Fine Arts Garden.  The building itself is worth admiring and the art is the replicas that are built into the concrete.  No air conditioning but it was cool in the shade, or at least not hot, and there were benches so we sat for a little while and then decided to go to a temple along the subway line since we had bought passes, and then part ways.

We went to the temple were it is said the school of Ikenobo flower arrangement began.  The building behind the temple must be a school of ikebana or something and it looks, from the outside, like it's very beautiful inside.  

The temple is a hexagon which is quite unusual. 

They say if you tell this little god your troubles she/he? will take the burden.

 

Back to the subway, retrieved Yoshie's bags and she took one line and I took another.  She would go to the main station to catch the shinkansen home.  I went to my transfer station, checked out a few stores in the attached mall, and then went home to a very quite and empty apartment.