Beautiful gravel

My first day in Kyoto has given me the pleasure of seeing two of my now-favourite gardens in Japan: Kinkokujin (the Silver Palace, which is not silver), a former medieval villa-turned-temple, and the 13th-century Nanzen-ji, a temple complex the enormous gate of which is a jaw-dropper in itself (and for a mere 500 yen I was allowed to take my shoes off, carry them in the plastic bag provided, climb up to the viewing deck inside and goggle at the sweeping views of the surrounding mountain, forest and the city beyond).

You know, I never really got beyond an intellectual appreciation of those raked gravel zen gardens, until today. I'm not sure if it's just the high　quality of these gardens, or having been primed for them by being in Japan a couple of weeks now, but I hadn't realized that raked gravel could be so, well, organic.

Anyway, both of these gardens are amazing in that everything is thought out in every possible way. Just look at any random branch, shrub, root, rock, chunk of moss, whatever, and you'll soon realize, oh, it has been selected to simultaneously match and contrast with this or that, and positioned to harmonize with everything else on a micro and macro scale, and every near and distant view is considered. And then you realize that in another season, the effect would be totally different but also just as harmonious. And then you take two steps and look at something else, and have the same experience, but then look back at the first thing from the new angle and realize it was thought about from that angle too. And then two more steps... and two more...

It takes me a long time to get through these gardens. But who's in a rush?