Some of my Takenaka co-workers took me and the other two American Interns on a bicycle tour of Kyoto.
The highlights were Kinkaku-ji and Kiyomizu, both very recognizable from the guidebooks. Also made stops at the Imperial Palace grounds as well as the Shogo-in Gate, a very impressive wooden structure that is one of the tallest in Japan

Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)
The detail sensibility is the most impressive thing about these old temples, though many are mostly rebuilt at this point and not wholly original the sensibility and craftmanship remains the same. Originally built in the 14th century, this version is a rebuild from 1955 (after a fire set by a mentally ill monk, allegedly) and the current version includes extensive updates from 1984, '87, and '03. Each of the three levels is detailed according to distictly different era's of temple design.
(The rainy season is about to start, it rained for a portion of this day, and the treatment of water through the gutter details to various forms of rain leaders or rain chains always with an attention to sound is something one could spend months studying.)



Bike ride


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Outdoor Art Gallery - Tadao Ando
This was an early Ando project that has since been converted into trendy boutique stores. It makes great use of a little stream that flanks the site, and like all Ando projects you can't take a bad photograph of it.







Kiyomizu
The gardens below (Temple is quite a hike up)

Zen Buddhist Slump Test






trimming moss (there are over 60 kinds of moss, each used very specifically, and tended to by the gardeners with little moss trimming tools.)












Detail shot, I could do an entire blog just on hand crafted hardware