Myoshinji Temple

By chance, I'd heard about a garden lighting event that was happening at Myoshinji Temple tonight. I asked a couple of girls if they were interested in going, and after a delicious meal at a curry restaurant we went to the temple to take in the lights.

It is still astounding to me that in Kyoto you can ride your bicycle through the grounds of a temple in the middle of the night. We saw several joggers, and people just taking a stroll along the winding stone pathways. At night, the pavilions and building seem even more awe inspiring, quietly standing there in all their beauty.

We ended up losing our way along the path, so we asked an elderly man who was walking by. It turns out he lived/worked at the temple, and instead of just giving us directions, he led the way for us, slowly walking with the aid of a cane. It was so kind of him. The temple grounds are absolutely enormous.

Once we reached the area where the lights were, we paid a fee to enter and walked down a small path to a building where we removed our shoes. We walked through the quiet hallways of an old building along the tatami mats, to an area where the doors were slid open and you could walk out onto the deck to view the garden.

The view was simply...astounding. It took my breath away. Flickering candles were set all through the garden in beautiful arrangements, with paper lanterns scattered among them. There are really no words to describe how beautiful it was. My friends and I simply sat down on the deck for some time, looking out at all the lights and listening to the sounds of crickets and soft drum beats.

It was one of those moments that I know I will carry with me all my life, one of those moments when you become aware of things so much bigger than yourself. At times I had to fight back the tears that were beginning to well up in my eyes. Every single sensation felt magnified, from the candle lights glittering in my eyes, to the creak of the floorboards and the texture of the tatami mats beneath my feet.