southern higashiyama

we spend a day seeing the many sights

in southerner higashiyama,

a district in kyoto that holds the geisha neighborhood.

we saw more shrines, temples, and gardens

then we ever thought possible in one day.

each more beautiful and 

extravagant than the next...

-e

arashiyama

on august 16th steven and i 

ventured out to arashiyama 

along with thousands of other people to witness

the daimonji gozan okuri-bi send off fires.

these are five fires on different hillsides

around kyoto

that each show a japanese symbol.

though the origins of this festival

are unknown, today the fires are representative of 

guiding the spirits of the dead

back to the Buddhist Pure Land.

i didnt get any pictures of the fires 

as they were pretty far off,

but the day was wonderful and

we also witnessed the paper lantern festival 

in arashiyama where

countless paper lanterns are released on the

Oi river...

-e

there was festival type food everywhere on this little towns busiest day

we walked along the famous bamboo grove outside tenryu-ji temple

the first picture of us! taken by us!

skipping rocks by the river

more festival food

the platform where the paper lanterns were let go

this is only a fraction of haw many lanterns were made and sent off

tako yaki!! octopus balls. 

smart coffee

steven and i stopped 

by this great cafe 

to escape the heat for a couple minutes.

we had the best iced cafe au lait 

i think i've ever had,

as well as a pretty incredible

fruit sunday!

not a bad way to cool down...

-e

daitoku-ji

a short walk away from our ryokan

is the little village of temples

known as daitoku-ji.

there are small stone roads connecting 

zen temples, raked gravel gardens, and cemeteries. 

people still live here (inside some of the temples) and it was interesting

to see modern cars parked outside the ancient temples.

even though it's sometimes been unbearably 

hot here,

it's nice to go to these popular sites and 

be some of the only people wandering around...

-e

kyoto botanical gardens

were we're staying is

right down the street from the

kyoto botanical gardens.

naturally it was one of the first 

places we explored.

there was every type of garden you could 

imagine.

including an extensive bonsai tree garden...

-e