Everyone but me.. is sick of Kyoto

Higashiyama Hanatoro

I found out about the Higashiyama Hanatoro light festival off a website and thought it was worth a trip. I enjoyed my time there but had already been walking around town for 10 hours before the festival started, so I was a little sick of walking, but the festival was great. I especially enjoyed seeing the temples lit up at night.

The festival was set up around the streets between Yasaka shrine and Kiyomizu. The route was lined with 2000+ lanterns which are lit after 6pm. A number of the temples in the area had special lighting and there was a modern ikebana display and many many people.

I arrived early so I avoided some of the crowds

Chion-in's great gate. It was huge.

The flower show was in Maruyama koen behind Yasaka shrine. The Ikebana was sometimes good, but interesting and engaging. I quite enjoyed it.

One of my favorites

ho hum

These were set up for the night time light display. Check out Jeffrey Friedl’s Blog for some pretty awesome photos from the park.

To wait for nightfall I trundled over to Gion and had a coffee in one of the smoky coffee shops. Then as it fell 6pm off I went toward Yasaka shrine and the light show.

Hokan-ji was just beginning to light up as I walked past.

I have been to Kiyomizudera a number of times. But this time the crowd had to be careful of the hundreds of photographers with their tripods. As I had no tripod...my shows were a bit blurry, especially as night set in..