Last week the Umeda school, where I am based, was briefly closed for renovations, so I got shipped out to the Kyoto Ekimae (“station-side”) school for two days. On one of those two days, a student cancelled their lesson after it was meant to begin, so I got paid to go out and walk around Kyoto for two hours.

And this is some of what I saw…

A view towards central Kyoto, looking north up the Kamo river, near the Shichijo-dori bridge.

At both the Nishi Honganji and the Higashi Honganji, it’s difficult to take good photos, because the main halls at each temple are being restored inside giant hangars like this one (at the Higashi Honganji).

Nevertheless, if you look away from the hangars, you can take some decent photos. This is a fountain at the Higashi Honganji. It’s not suffused with holy power, it was just a bright day and I’d forgotten to peel the plastic lens-protector off my new mobile-phone.

One of the east gates of the Higashi Honganji complex. The fountain in front is a sculpture of a lotus blossom.