As part of Aunt Jeannette's visit to Kyoto, Anthony and I tagged along on one of her tour days, which brought me to the Kiyomizu Temple (清水寺) for the first time in many years. I really have no excuse for not visiting sooner, since it's just a mile away.

These days, this temple seems to be known among foreign tourists mostly because it's included among some company's “new seven wonders of the world” profit campaign. Both the campaign and this temple's inclusion in such a list seem like a total crock to me, but the temple is wonderful nevertheless.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — ¹/640 sec, f/8, ISO 250, — map & image data — nearby photos
Lotsa' Steps To Somewhere

There are dozens of buildings in the temple complex, the one above being some minor outlying building or something.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 48mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250, — map & image data — nearby photos
Bamboo and Twine Fence
(With the help of a few screws)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
More Steps

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/350 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nice View From the Main Temple

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 23mm — ¹/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nice View of the Main Temple

Looking back from further on in back toward the main temple, you can see how it's propped up on the mountain side.

The big white building in the background is, I think, the recently-completed cover for the main hall of the Hongan Temple, 1.9 miles (3km) away. It's absolutely huge, being 100 meters deep, by 75 meters wide, by really really tall.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/250 sec, f/4, ISO 250, — map & image data — nearby photos
B&W Gargoyle

Well, since water's not passing through the face, I guess “gargoyle” is not technically accurate, but I don't know what else to call it. The gutter downspout was somewhat orangeish, but otherwise this roof was almost completely devoid of color, so I thought to give it a black and white rendition.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 35mm — ¹/160 sec, f/4, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony and Aunt Jeannette

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 22mm — ¹/320 sec, f/4, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony Playing “I'm Gunna' Get You”

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Checking Out the Incense

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 52mm — ¹/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Checking Out the Fountain

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — ¹/60 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Using Water from the Fountain
(Apparently in the proper way, mimicking what someone else just did)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 35mm — ¹/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Kyoto Tower in the Background

I don't know the people doing the stereotypical Japanese “peace” photo pose, but I thought this view nicely gave a sense of the temple's location to Greater Kyoto, with Kyoto Tower and JR Kyoto Station about 1.6 miles (2.5km) west-south-west.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640, — map & image data — nearby photos
Small Portion of the Parking Lot
Which can hold 51 full-length tourist busses, in addition to numerous cars and the mini busses like those in the foreground here.