In all your philosophy

There are so many things to see in Kyoto, and I know I'm going to miss a lot of sights and be chastised by those in the know (noh), but I did finally get to Philosopher's Walk and Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion. The Tetsugaku-no Michi itself is lovely and winds along a narrow canal in the eastern mountains overlooking Kyoto. However, bad directions sent me there by subway; so it took an hour's walk to get to the bottom of the 1/2 hour Philospher's Walk. I was overheated and panting when I went into Eikan Temple and actually prayed to Buddha to get me through this ordeal and not let me pass out. The Eikan Temple has a lovely story about the abbot taking a walk when an embodiment of Buddha appeared walking beside him. The abbot stopped in surprise, and the embodiment of the Buddha turned, smiling, and said, "Abbot, you are late!" So, bolstered by Buddha's sense of humor, I figured I would try to keep up and continued the rest of the way to Ginkaku-ji where the reluctant shogun, Yoshimasa, developed a great deal of how we characterize Japanese traditional culture. He made the classic tea room, developed an incense ceremony, designed gardens and the Silver Pavilion, and patronized the Noh theatre. The gardens were incredible: Moss gardens, sand gardens, ponds, and groves. I was so glad I made it.