Sakura - Kyoto

At first glance Kyoto wasn’t the most beautiful city in all of Japan as advertised, but yet another Japanese metropolis. It wasn’t until we ventured around the city that we unveiled its true beauty. We spent three days plus a day trip from Takayama exploring the temples and shrines, viewing the cherry blossoms, and even caught a few shots of maikos (geisha apprentices)! Although the weather wasn’t always on our side we made it to the Golden Pavilion of Kinkaku-ji, the Zen garden of Ryōan-ji, the thousands of toriis at Fushimi Inari Taisha, and many other sites.

The Golden Pavilion is a Zen temple of the Rinzai School; however, it has a rather dark story hidden in its history. Back in 1950, a monk burned the pavilion down in the middle of the night then unsuccessfully attempted suicide behind the building. Once taken into custody, his mother was questions during the investigation and on her way home she committed suicide by jumping from her train into a river below. The monk was sentenced to seven years in jail, but later released due to mental illness only to die from other illnesses shortly thereafter.

On a lighter note the Ryōan-ji temple, which is known for its karensansui (dry-landscape) rock garden was very peaceful. Supposedly built back in the 1400s, the garden consists of raked gravel and 15 boulders positioned in such a way that one could only see 14 boulders at once. It was said that one would have to achieve enlightenment to view all 15 boulders or be over 6ft tall.

I couldn’t help but to think of “Memoirs of a Geisha” as we strolled through the Fushimi Inari Taisha temple, dedicated to Inari the god of business. The 4km of trails are lined with thousands of orange toriis donated by Japanese businesses. But beware the stone foxes of Inari around the temple as they’re said to possess people through their fingernails.

If the beauty of the shrines and gardens weren’t enough we arrived during cherry blossom season and Kyoto is arguably the best place in all of Japan for viewing them.

Foot path across the water at the Heian shrine.

The Hirano Shrine is a small shrine normally off the radar of most Western tourists; however, the majority of its weeping blossoms were in full bloom making it spectacular.

The blossoms are lit at night around the Nijo castle adding a different experience to the viewing.

Later we strolled around the geisha district taking part in the maiko photo session. We were very lucky as the chances of seeing a Geisha walking the streets are slim to none. The maikos were elegant and mysterious posing along the scenic waterfront in full regalia.