This post was written in 2007. Some information may be out of date.
To welcome the spring of 2007, I spent two days in Kyoto on April 7-8 for some cherry blossom viewing. After going for the autumn leaves last fall, I’d told myself I had to come back in spring too, and whether it was luck or not, the timing worked out. Spring came a bit early this year, so I booked the trip without really being able to predict when the cherry blossoms would open, but when I got there the sakura in Kyoto were in full bloom. I made the rounds of quite a few famous sights around the city, but the places I truly had zero regrets about were Heian Jingu Shrine, the Philosopher’s Path, the Kamo River, the Tenjin River and Arashiyama. Maruyama Park, the most famous cherry blossom spot right in the middle of the city, was packed with homeless-looking -_- people who had stayed up all night since the day before to save a hanami spot, which was pretty annoying. And Arashiyama was so crowded it was a real ordeal. For night sakura I also went to Nijo Castle and Kiyomizu-dera, but they didn’t move me as much as in autumn. Overall Kyoto in autumn seemed better than Kyoto in spring, but even so, Kyoto in spring is definitely worth seeing at least once.
Strangely, I’ve hardly ever had clear skies on my Kyoto trips, and this time was no different. The only exception was when I went to the Philosopher’s Path in front of Ginkaku-ji: the weather was great and a lot of my photos came out well, so I’ve put them together in a special post. It’s such a famous place that I’ll skip the detailed explanations.
The entrance
They say this is the path walked by Nishida Kitaro, the philosopher who represents modern Japan. I doubt anyone noticed, but just one block before you reach this path is Kyoto University, supposedly number one in Kansai, looking remarkably shabby.
At the entrance..
The legend of spring starts right at the entrance.
Still the entrance..
A few too many entrance photos ^_^ The entrance alone is over 50 meters long. The cherry-lined path is said to be 1.8 km in total. I spent an hour walking there and back.
It’s still morning so there aren’t many tourists yet, but they soon came flooding in.
Maybe because it rained the day before, the green feels extra fresh.
The blossoms here hang low overall. There seem to be more cherry trees along the Kamo River or the Tenjin River, but for actually enjoying hanami, the Philosopher’s Path was better.
More in part 2…