If you only come to Kyoto once, and you get one day here, please please please go and see this place. Kinkakuji is extraordinary. It is a pavilion covered in gold leaf, floating above an elegant carp-filled lake.
It sits in grounds of immaculately kept Japanese gardens, and for me captures the essence of all that is good about Japanese history and traditions.
It is magnificent, and I hope that one day you get the chance to marvel at its decadent beauty, peer at your reflection in its lake, and lose yourself in its lush gardens. And if you do, be sure to try the green tea ice cream before you leave!
