Adashino Nenbutsu-ji, a beautiful Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Kyoto.

This used to be a place where people left the bodies of their dead. Now the temple holds thousands of burial statuettes that memorialize the souls of the dead. The statuettes used to be scattered around but where gathered into one place a hundred years ago.

I guess that at one point the statuettes had shape and features. Now they’ve been worn down by weather and wind into a soft-edged sameness. Rather symbolic of what happens with ourselves after we die. At first we are distinct in people’s memories; later we become just a vague concept of a distant ancestor.

Just the beautiful lichen-covered wall of a round stone structure inside the temple area.

Geographically we’re not that far from central Kyoto, but it certainly feels distant.

Kyoto is nestled in a valley between rocky, wooded hills. The city hasn’t crept up on the hills much – either they’re too difficult to build on, or they’ve been intentionally left untouched. On the outer edges of the city, the hills show very clearly where the city stops and nature starts.

The suburban streets we walked through were very pleasant and pretty. Very different from the streets of Tokyo. Then again, we never really got as far out as the edges of Tokyo.