Mimuroto-ji in rainy season

Spring and autumn are the best season to walk around Kyoto, but these are the seasons when famous temples and shrines are packed with tourists from all over Japan. I like to walk in winter to some extent, as snow-capped temples are beautiful and Zen gardens in cold are to transport me into another world. But rainy season is hard to have comfortable walking.

Yet I found the nice place to be in this very rainy season. It's Mimurodo-ji in Uji city, just south of Kyoto city. I have never been to this temple, but it seems this place has a lot of hydrangea in its garden. Hydrangea is in bloom in rainy season in Japan, so rainy season has its own merit, after all.

Western Japan is now officially in rainy season, that usually lasts to the Gion festival in mid-July. But today, it did not rain, so I visited Mimurodo-ji. Good, but hydrangea was not so super. But I decided to buy some stamp collection book that covers 33 famous temples in western Japan. I like to visit all of these 33 temples to complete stamp collection. I used the word stamp in English, but it may mis-convey the image. It is called goshu-in(御朱印) in Japanese, red seal and comes with caligraphic writing at each sacred place. These 33 have Buddhism in common, but sect and school is different. Mimurodo-ji belongs to Nara Buddhisim, which predates Kyoto or Heian Buddhism. Other temple belongs to Tendai or Shingon from Heisan period(8th to 11th century). I found that no temple in this 33 pilgrimage includes Pure land school or Zen. I don't know much about Buddhism, but aesthetics aside, I like Pure land and Zen.