Hirano Shrine, Kyoto

I meant to save the best for the last  write this long time ago and guess what, it's already 8 months since the date I was in Japan for sakura. Very outdated, yes and considered the fact that I went to Japan the second time in October, this seemed very irrelevant anymore. But I wanted to share the photos, more importantly those sakura flakes photos, as well as, the Oukasai Cherry Blossom festival that we coincidentally went to in April.

Oukasai festival is held on April 10th every year (at least it was on the 10th when we were there), is a festival where you can see many Japanese dressing up as Samurai, geisha and many other more parading along the shrine into the roads. And like many other sakura viewing parks and gardens, there are plenty of foodstalls cater for those who had hanami here. We opted to have our lunch at one of the stalls under the pinkish sakura 'snow'.

And of course, not forgetting to snap some photos under the romantic sakura trees. Seriously, my words can't even describe the feeling and the atmosphere there. You just have to be there to experience it yourself. Pink sakura petals falling off the tree and forming a pink blanket below. Surreal! The sound of camera clicking non stop whenever the wind blows (I contribute to some of the clicking, haha), ok that was not so romantic. But you get the picture la.

To make my statement, here's some of the clicking done.

Hanami

the crowd waiting for the parade to start

I quite like this picture as it feels like Inception;
 I am taking photo of a man taking photo of a lady taking photo of the parade

some of the 'geisha'

with the two samurais, the main character for the festival

my favourite photo 

Heian Shrine @ Kyoto

We saw from the white board in our hostels saying that the sakura flowers will be full bloom in Heian Shrine and this is the best time to view the flowers in their glory state. As we spend almost half a day in Philosopher's Path and Ginkakuji Temple and admiring all the pretty sakura flowers along the path, we barely had an hour in the shrine. It is free to walk around the shrine but we need to pay around 500 yen to enter the garden which was full of tourists. If you ask me, the garden is nice but nothing to shout about comparatively to Philosopher's Path and Hirano Shrine. Maybe because it was full of tourists and we did not take much nice photos in there and there's a cost to get into the garden. But it's worth going in for the willow cherry trees and the almost mirror lake view. And while we were there, there was some event going on for school children.

It's quite easy to get to the shrine from the Philosopher's Path as we just walk along the path until the end and went through some housing area.

Sakura Fever

I just can't get enough of sakura eventhough it has been 2 months since I came back from my epic trip to Japan. First trip to many more to come, hopefully and I am already thinking of going back there again next year during sakura season. It's something to do with the pinkness (and I dont even like pink), flowery and everyone seems to be in happy mood.

I noticed there are actually a few variations of the flowers though so far all I can distinguish are whitish pink, pink pink and reddish pink. Most of the flowers I saw in Nara park in whitish pink while in Kyoto mostly are pink pink and only in Arashiyama I can se reddish pink.

Not going to talk much of the sakura tree species as you can get a good guide at this website.

Here's some of the upclose sakura flowers that I managed to capture.

Along the Philosopher's Path

At Imperial Palace Kyoto

At Heian Shrine, one of the willow tree

At Tenryuji temple

Not sure whether this is sakura or not, oh well, it's quite pretty 

Among the red and white sakura

Hybrid colour of white and red sakura flowers at Tenryuji Temple

At Arashiyama, you can see some buds are still not opened yet

Best Spot For Sakura Viewing (Kyoto Version)

Before my trip to Kyoto last April, I had googled the whole internet in search for the best spots for sakura viewing in Kyoto. I guess we were lucky that although we only arrived 5 days after the full bloom, the chill during the weekend actually 'freeze' the sakura and by the time we arrived on Sunday, many of the spots around Kyoto were still full of sakura. If not for the frozen state, I think most of the flowers would be gone in a week after full bloom.

Some of my favourite spots of sakura viewing are as follows:

                                                                                          Hirano Shrine

1. Hirano Shrine
This has to be my favourite of all spots as we came here for the Oukasai festival and end up taking lots of photos sitting under the sakura trees with pink sakura petals on the floor as carpet. It is romantic, pinkish and dreamy with the wind blowing the petals off the trees making it look like snowing sakura petals. Before coming here, I was determined that Philosopher's Path is my favourite

2. Philosopher's Walk/Path
This is my second favourite as we arrived at the right time with the sakura flowers still basically full bloom. Imagine the two sides of the river/canal/longkang/whatever with water inside were planted with sakura trees spanning about 3 kilometres long. It was like a scene straight out from Winter Sonata but here more like Sakura Sonata.

Nara Park

3. Nara Park (ok, technically this is not in Kyoto)
I wasn't that looking forward to visit Nara as there is nothing much to see (at least, that's what I assume and how wrong I am). But let me tell us, Nara is a must if you are in Kyoto or Osaka. Todaiji temple itself already makes the trip worth, I will explain that in another entry. The highlight got to be the Nara Park which is besides full with deer roaming around freely, is the entire park is full of sakura trees, every corner. I went crazy here with my tripod taking the photos of us, finally without people peeking and photobombing us from behind. I can imagine taking all the stunning pre-wedding photos here. Sigh, too bad  I am already married.

Garden inside Heian Shrine

 
4. Heian Shrine and the canal along the way
When we were in the bus enroute to Ginkakuji temple, we passed by Heian shrine and even from outside, the view of the cherry blossom trees along the canal was enough to make us go 'wow'. Most of the sakura are planted inside the garden and we had to pay to get into the garden. Otherwise, the shrine itself is free. There are many types of sakura trees inside the garden ranging from normal to weeping tree. Unfortunately, I feel that it was too crowded and we were not allowed to use the tripod inside here, otherwise, it would rank third.

5. Kiyomizudera temple
It's my favourite temple in Kyoto and although there were not much sakura trees left blooming here when we came, but I can't get the sight of the temple against the backdrop of the sakura flowers out from my head. I heard/read/saw from internet that the view is even more amazing during autumn. One day, I will come back to Kyoto for the autumn scenary.

Yozakura at Yasaka Shrine

6. Yasaka Shrine and Maruyama Park
We were here when it's dark so I can't judge how is the scenary of the cherry blossoms during day time but night time was superb. The pink flowers illuminated at night actually brought out the pink colour of the flowers even more as compare to day time. Coupled with such a happening place for yozakura (night viewing sakura) with lots of food stalls and locals having hanami under the pink trees, this place got to be in the list. The hightlight of the park is the weeping cherry tree in the middle. So beautiful yet at the same time looks a bit eery. Haha.

I planned most of the sights using this website

Nara Park

I totally went crazy taking photos of the sakura flowers here.

Thank god that I brought my tripod along and manage to take lots of good photos of us together this time. It's a good place to have a picnic, walk around or just feed the freely roaming deers.

And I kind of forgot to take photos of just the park itself. Comparing to my previous way of travelling of taking photos, this time I had more photos of us together and not just the background.

For privacy purpose, I am just gonna upload one photo of us under the sakura tree

Deer everywhere

So pretty

And many couples take their wedding photo here

Including this Japanese coupld

Kiyomizudera Temple 清水寺, Kyoto

Kiyomizudera temple against the backdrop of sakura flowers

Kiyomizudera temple is one of my favourite temples, from all the temples I have visited while in Kyoto. Although there are some slight construction going on, the view from the top is stunning. And not forgetting seeing my husband had to drag his feet up the multiple stairs after being tortured by me from walking too much on the first day in Kyoto.

My original plan is actually to walk from Heian shrine to Yasaka shrine and Maruyama Park and then along the streets of Higashiyama before reaching Kiyomizudera temple. However, as I took pity on my husband who can't seemed to walk anymore from carrying my big ass camera and tripod, we decided to take a bus from Heian shrine to the temple and then walk to Yasaka Shrine from the temple.

Entrance to the temple

 It is in this temple, the famous love stones are located. I read about the love stones on internet before coming here but forgot to take note on which temple that the stones are located. The stones are placed 6 meters apart and according to legend, if you able to walk from one stone to another with your eyes closed, you will meet your other half. Since I already found mine, I decided not to try, hah. There was no one trying to do that while I was there but there was a big crowd at the shrine.

That's where the love stone is located 

The temple is famous for the wooden stage that juts out from the main hall

Beneath the temple, there is this place Otowa waterfall where three channel of waters falling from the top and I saw people queing up for a drink and wishing. Being a kiasu Malaysia, we took turn to line up and I went first while my hubby had to take photos of me drinking and washing my hand with the water. Frankly speaking, I have no idea what to do, but just watch and see what the others did before following them. Apparently, the water can grant wishes. Hmm.. now I have to recall what I had wished at that moment.....

View of Higashiyama street from the temple

To get to Kiyomizudera temple, we took the bus no. 100 from one of the stops in front of Heian shrine. If you are coming from Kyoto station, it's the same bus as well. There are 2 stops for the temple, Kiyomizu-michi or Gojozaka. Besides bus no. 100, you can take bus no. 206 to get here from Kyoto station. 

Entrance fee is 300 yen per person and opening time from 6am to 6pm.

Philosopher's Path 哲学の道, Kyoto

When I was googling for the best spot to see the sakura or cherry blossoms in Kyoto, Philosopher's Path comes up the top.  A quick look at the google image during the sakura season totally blew me away. The whole pathway is lined with sakura trees on both side of the river and it goes all the way for almost 2-3 kilometres. And when we were there, the sakura flowers were beginning to drop and the whole river was covered in pink petals floating along. I can't stop taking photos every few seconds and it was indeed very romantic to walk under the sakura tress with your loved one. Almost every 5 minutes we walked, we stopped for photos. For a path that only takes about half an hour to finish walking, we took more than an hour!

The pathway is named after a university professor, Nishida Kitaro who used it for daily meditation and hence the name philosopher comes up.

Love the reflection of the sakura flowers

Syok sendiri, haha

I love it when the petals are floating in the river

Notice the bear family?

Can't stop looking at all the pretty flowers

Every corner we go, there is sakura 

To get to the path, take the bus no.100 from the bus stop D-1, bus no. 5 (bus stop A-1) or bus no. 17 (bus stop A-2) from the bus terminal in front of Kyoto station. Make sure the direction of the bus is heading towards Ginkakuji temple and stop at Ginkakuji michi 銀閣寺前. You can actually see the pathway lined with sakura trees from afar. 

There are also many sakura flavoured ice cream sellers along the road and temples along the path.