Tag Archives: garden

Ryōan-ji Zen garden: 15 rocks and a 15 year marriage

January 29, 2020 · by · in Japan, UNESCO World Heritage Sites · 14 Comments

As a young woman I thought a typical marriage was this: the wife thanklessly plows through endless chores while her husband, planted in front of a television, yells at a sports game as piles of empty beer cans rise up around him.  I never wanted to be married. HOB and I met at a bookstore […]

Borrowed scenery: Kyoto’s Golden Pavilion and Beijing’s Summer Palace

January 5, 2020 · by · in China, Japan, UNESCO World Heritage Sites · 15 Comments

My standard travel practice involves avoiding anything that smacks of shiny; palaces, treasuries, and—most dreaded of all—collections of silver tableware.  Nevertheless, I wanted to see the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto.  HOB and I had both read Yukio Mishima’s novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and were curious about this temple which had been rebuilt […]