Woke up to another drizzly day so slept in and headed out about 12:3pm for Byodo-In Temple. Real peaceful setting (it's inside the Valley of the Temples Cemetery).
Some pretty ornate headstones:
This was an interesting advertisement inside the cemetery:
Then we reached the parking lot, paid our $2 ea entrance fee, and walked over the bridge to the Byodo-In Temple:
Before entering the temple, everyone must ring the Sacred Bell. It is believed that the unique tone will clear the mind of negativity, impart deep peace and brings happiness, blessings and a long life. Both of us rang the bell for double luck...
Then we walked to the Meditation Pavilion to enjoy the lush surroundings (and a photo op)...
Just like at our house (NOT), we took off our shoes before entering the Temple...
The grounds around the Temple were raked into clean, straight lines...
We liked this frog spitting into the pond:
The Gift Shop (and there is always a gift shop) sold fish food and bird seed to the tourists. The roof looked like something out of Hitchcock's "The Birds":
Then we headed to Starbucks (for Pam) and to read some of the tour info of the area.
Then...we headed to Pali Lookout (hoping that the tunnel was open this time...and it was):
We stopped at an overlook before reaching the final lookout:
There were lots of cats, chickens with their little chicks, and birds all over the place:
We reached the Pali Lookout:
We think they were ready for crowds with their crowd-control railings:
The "Lookout" was socked in with fog but it didn't stop the tourists from trying to see something:
We thought the moss and lichens looked really interesting:
Time to head back to the apartment to plan tomorrow's sightseeing over a glass of wine.
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