The palace and garden area at Ninna-ji has a lot of raked sand. This image is looking east towards the pond that takes up the northeast corner of the walled-in area and was taken in a pouring downpour. I have great affection for Ninna-ji as the temple seems to be one of those places that tries to practice what it preaches. On this particular day, some of the members in our party were lacking umbrellas and this was noticed by the staff at the ticket office. We were handed umbrellas and made use of them during our tour of the gardens, but our attempt to return them afterwards was politely refused with the observation that it was still raining and they hoped we would enjoy seeing other sites that day. About half-a-decade ago, Ninna-ji had a visiting Canadian Buddhism student that ran their English-language Twitter account, but her eventual return home left a void that has not yet been filled.