every year for Daimonji Gozan Okuribi, a Buddhist fire ceremony that marks the end of the Japanese festival of the dead.

The Golden Pavilion of Kinkaku-ji was built in 1397 by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third Shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate. The pavilion served as Yoshimitsu's retirement home until his death in 1408. Several years later, as per his wishes, the pavilion became a Buddhist temple. The temple itself is a small pagoda, surrounded by an expansive garden. The garden is the real attraction here, and you can spend a good 45 minutes walking through it. There are numerous little shops selling souvenirs in the garden, but there's nothing really worth buying, since half of it doesn't even have anything to do with the temple.

Our second stop was Nijo Castle.This castle was built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, in 1603 as a Kyoto residence. Home of the emperor, Kyoto was the official capital of Japan at the time, even though the shogunate ruled from Tokugawa's hometown, Edo (now called Tokyo), until the Meiji Restoration. The Kyoto castle was used primarily for meetings with the emperor. The castle is a large wooden mansion, surrounded by stone walls and a moat. Most of the original decorations remain or have since then been restored.

I was immediately drawn to a comparison with Versailles Palace in France, which I visited last October. Nijo was built 80 years before Versailles and while it isn't nearly as lavish, it maintains a similar decorum, beauty and function. Like Versailles, long before you