Daisen-In Temple

Unclaimed

If you can only ever see one dry landscaping (zen) garden, this is definitely the one you should chose. Oubai-in is even better, but not open all year long. This is definitely one of the best highlights of Kyoto, with great explanations in the visitor's guide of the significance of each garden parts.

This was a very nice temple located into the Daikoku-ji Buddhist compound. I visited on a tour early morning to attend a tea ceremony and Zen Buddhist meditation session. If you are interested in Buddhism it is a nice attraction. There weren't too many other tourists, which indicated they may schedule visits. They also had a nice table set up to sell temple products like incense and temple writings. We also go to meet the past Temple Priest.

A wonderful meditation class with full explanation of what to expect before we started. After the 25 minutes of meditation we had a tour of thr gardens and given information on how and why the zen gardens are formed and what they represent followed by a lovely informal tea ceremony with a lovely cinnamon sweet to make the matcha less bitter.

Lovely mediation experience. They provide small stools for those that cannot sit on the floor.