I'm so sorry for the lack of posting lately! I'm settling back into desert life in Al Ain so things should be back to normal from now on - in fact
better than before!
In between packing, cleaning and waiting in various government offices B and I did have some time for sight seeing. We spent an absolutely beautiful Tuesday in Kyoto admiring the cherry blossoms. I know I keep going on about how much I love spring in Japan, but I can't help it! After a long, cold winter there is nothing better than warm sunshine and beautiful flowers blooming. Although the Japanese don't seem to have near as many spring blooms as other countries do, their cherry blossoms take the cake. They weren't quite full bloom yet, and go figure when we went back about a week later they were almost finished. Oh well, they were beautiful anyways!
We arrived in Kyoto around lunch time, so after a quick bite we set off for Yasaka Jinja and Maruyama Koen.
It's just not hanami without a drink in hand! We opted for sakura flavored chu hai, found ourselves a little spot under the blossoms and did some people watching.
Once our chu hais were finished, we continued on towards Kiyomizudera (along with everyone else in Kyoto and China it seemed).
Remember when I posted about
all things cherry blossom? Well, it's sakura ice cream season, so we each had a sakura matcha swirl cone for the road.
Our walk took us through Gion to
Kennin-ji. Since we've been several times, we decided not to stop.
And finally to the Kamo-gawa where we took a break and watched the birds splash in the shallows until dinner time. We even squeezed in some karaoke before heading home to Osaka for the night.
If you're planning a trip to Japan, I can't recommend springtime (early April) enough. It will be a bit more expensive, and you need to book flights and rooms early, but it is definitely worth it in my humble opinion!
No comments