This year, I was lucky enough to visit Kyoto during cherry blossom on two separate occasions! Here are some of my pics I took while I was wandering around.
I spent most of my time in the East of the city – my favourite area as there’s so much to see, conveniently that’s also where the Keihan railway goes!
I jumped off the train at Gion Shijo station, my first stop was the beautiful Shirakawa-dori in Gion.
This area had an evening light-up event running, so I headed on with a plan to come back after dark.
I started going north, passing the giant torii gate of Heian Shrine
It’s over 24 metres tall, and the uprights almost 4 metres in diameter!
Next stop, the Tetsugaku-no-michi(哲学の道), known in English as The Philosopher’s Walk. This tree-lined 1.8km route runs from Nanzen-ji in the south to Ginkaku-ji in the north. It gets pretty busy during cherry blossom, but the rest of the year it’s a nice spot for a quiet stroll. I walked about halfway along and then sat and watched the world go by for a bit.
On the back towards southern Higashiyama, I came across even more trees in bloom near Kyoto Zoo.
Maruyama Koen was looking so nice, this weeping cherry tree(shidarezakura) was the main attraction.
I still had a while until dark, so I grabbed a table with a good view of the shidarezakura and had a couple of beers. It wasn’t so busy this time of day but there was still a good atmosphere.
Lastly, I went back to Shirakawa-dori for the light-up!
Tatsumi Daimyojin Shrine looked fantastic after dark.
So that was my Hanami in Kyoto! I’m looking forward to seeing more cherry blossom at the Japan Mint(造幣局) in Osaka early next week!