Blog of Sean: Maruyama Koen

On our third night we walked over from the hotel to Yasaka Jinja in the Gion area. Its an interesting place at night, overlooking the bustle of Gion:

The gate is bright orange and white:

Large stones make for an attractive path to the centre of the Shrine. The lanterns bring it to life after dark::

Nearby in Maruyama Koen the spring splendor of the giant weeping cherry tree is fully lit:

On the street in front of the shrine we spot a Maiko san heading off to an evening appointment and looking somewhat out of place in the modern surroundings:

Around the corner though is the Gion district's main entertainment district for the well to do, a fitting destination for her:

After watching her duck discreetly into a doorway, we headed back to our hotel and called it a night.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Kyoto the Trip! Part 2 - Kiyomizu Temple and Maruyama Koen

In the afternoon of our first day in Kyoto we headed over to Kiyomizu temple in the Higashiyama area. We've both been there a few times. It was one of the first temples I ever visited in Japan in fact, I rang in the millennium there way back on January 1, 2000.

Its always crowded. The big platform overlooking the city is the main draw:

We stood and enjoyed the view for a moment. Damn that double chin!:

We had lunch there at an outdoor vendor, sitting on fold up tables overlooking the valley:

We enjoyed our Udon. The coke was for me:

The best part of Kiyomizu isn't the temple itself but the winding alleyways leading up to it. They are one of the few places in Japan where you can actually see unbroken stretches of traditional looking architecture. They are crowded, have a mercantile atmosphere to them and are in no way indicative of what such streets actually looked like in the Edo era, but they are still quite fun to walk around. The shopping street looks quite nice with the cherry blossoms in full bloom too:

These eventually led us to Maruyama Koen, a park in the middle of the Higashiyama area of Eastern Kyoto. Cherry blossom season was just beginning and it is the centre of Kyoto's Hanami activity, so it was bustling.

We sat down for a snack amongst the colorful vendors:

After that we did a bit more wandering around before crashing exhausted at our hotel (on that, see future post on the hazards of choosing the cheapest night bus to Kyoto). The following day's activities are detailed in the next post.

About Blog of Sean

This is a blog. My name is Sean. It is my blog. Hence the name.

Its a blog mostly about Fukuoka, Kyushu and Japan. Because that is where I live. All three of them. They are very blog-worthy places. Hence my choice of subject matter.

I hope you enjoy the blog. Its got a lot of stuff in it, as you can see from the gargantuan list of labels just below. Look down, you'll find it. On the right of the screen. Yeah...thats it. Lots of stuff, eh? Yup.

Feel free to browse at your leisure.

NOTE: It has been a while since I updated this blog. Mostly because I left Fukuoka in 2012 and decided to wrap it up, blogs are so much more fun to write when you live in a place like Fukuoka (and have the time).

Blog of Sean

Friday, April 15, 2011

Kyoto the Trip! Part 11 - Yasaka Jinja by Night

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Kyoto the Trip! Part 2 - Kiyomizu Temple and Maruyama Koen

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