Daitoku-Ji

Today Reena and I toured Kyoto by bike. Kyoto was actually pretty easy to navigate, much of it is on a grid, unlike Tokyo. Daitoku-Ji is a Zen-lovers paradise. It consists of 24 subtemples. The grounds are perfectly quiet and austere. It is landscaped with dry pines, wooden walkways, stones and sand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daitoku-ji



Although Reena and I were very interested in this Rinzai school of Zen haven---we were more interested in tasting the renowned Zen Buddhist temple food. We were served course after course of delectable vegetarian food. All was served in these small, red-lacquer ware bowls.




At the end of the meal, it is good luck to stack your bowls concentrically as such:

The meal was itself enlightening, the only draw back was that my devoutly vegetarian husband---Aaron McGrath wasn't there to partake. Oh well, another reason to return to Kyoto.