Cherry Blossoms
It was our first time to be in Japan during the spring season. Kyoto was our home base for three weeks and we made it our priority to see the cherry blossoms. Early one morning we strolled along the Philosopher's Walk.
The first blooming trees had blossoms that appeared white from afar, but actually had a pink center. They are yoshino cherry trees and they bloom before leafing, which adds to their pristine appearance.
By getting out early, we had the Philosopher's Walk to ourselves at first.
But it was a popular spot for viewing the cherry blossoms, so pretty soon we had lots of company. Of course everyone takes photos of the flowers.
This time of year picnicking is a very popular activity. Called hanami, the practice of having lunch and drinking sake under the blooming trees dates back to the 8th century.
One afternoon during the peak week of the Yoshino cherry blossoms, we sat on the bank of the Kama River and enjoyed ourselves.
The banks were filled with blooming cherry trees, so it was a lovely place to be.
We visited Nanzen-ji, and Pete photographed the cherry blossoms by the main temple.
Ornamental cherry trees are called sakura in Japanese. Each evening during sakura the news reports on the status of the blooming so that people know exactly when it's at peak.
In Japan, the cherry blossoms are an important metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life, an aspect of Japanese tradition that is associated with Buddhist influence. The 100 yen coin has cherry blossoms on it.
The yaezakura cherry trees have large flowers that are thick with pink petals and they leaf while blooming, so they look very different than the yoshino cherry trees.
Our Airbnb apartment was near the Okazaki Canal.
Each day we walked along the canal, noticing the changes in the flowers.
Our Airbnb apartment was near the Okazaki Canal.
Each day we walked along the canal, noticing the changes in the flowers.
After a week, we started noticing cherry blossom "snow" on the ground.
But the trees continued to be beautiful even as they were dropping their petals.
There were boat rides all day long on the canal. It was a nice touch that the guide and the pilot wore pink jackets.
Dusk was the prettiest time along the canal, as the white blossoms turned golden when lit by the setting sun.
This photo was taken on the March blue moon.
We visited Maruyama Park to see this 400 year old cherry tree.
As the sun was setting, we strolled around the tree and happened to run into our friends Colin (middle) and Jon.
We had seen Colin's Instagram posts from Kyoto so we knew they were in town, but we were so surprised and happy to bump into them. We made a date to visit the Miho Museum together.
To get to the entrance to the Miho Museum we had a 10-minute walk along this path lined with some of the most beautiful blooming cherry trees we had seen.
Colin and Jon, both excellent photographers, stop to commemorate the moment with a selfie.
They also really like doughnuts. Jon posts a lot on Instagram, and he regularly includes doughnuts in his posts.
The trees lining the walk were mostly shidarezakura, weeping cherry trees, which have branches like weeping willows.
The tree-lined walk led to a long, curving tunnel that beautifully framed the cherry trees as we looked back toward the entrance.
As we emerged from the tunnel we were on a bridge over Peach Valley that also had cherry trees.
This was our fourth visit to Kyoto, and we still had temples that we wanted to visit. Ninna-ji is known for having hundreds of dwarf omuro cherry trees that bloom about a week later than the mainstream yoshino trees.
This pagoda at Ninna-ji dates back to the 9th century, but because of fire, it was rebuilt in the 17th century.
The omura cherry trees were dropping their petals and making a pink carpet.
It was a popular place.
And we could see why, as the blossoms were still magnificent.
Our favorite cherry trees were the ones with big pink flowers, like these yaezakura trees. They reminded us of spring in South Korea, which we had experienced in 2013.
When arrived in Kyoto, this was the view of the Okazaki Canal from our Airbnb window. At first the cherry trees had only buds that were hard to see.
But within a week, the trees were completely blooming.
And by the end of our stay the blossoms were gone and the trees had new leaves.
Birds
The black eared kites were frequently soaring over the river and canals, and this one swooped down for a drink.
The Kama River seemed very clean and we saw Eurasian wigeons along the banks.
This Japanese wagtail was hunting and catching bugs at the river.
The great blue herons seemed particularly colorful in Japan.
We watched little egrets wading and fishing in the river.
Gardens in Spring
We had visited this garden on our first trip to Japan in 2001 and loved it. The garden is 400 years old, and some of the pine trees are over 300 years old. These pine trees seemed to be reaching out over the pond.
We saw lots of gardeners tending the pine trees.
It takes a lot of work to trim the branches, twigs and needles into geometrical shapes.
We bought some fish food and fed the koi.
We didn't take a boat ride like the feudal lords of the past, but we enjoyed strolling around the pretty south pond. Behind the boat on the island were trees just starting to bud.
We looked across the pond toward the beautiful arched bridge.
Back in Kyoto we went to Shoren-in and saw more beautiful pine trees. We went in the evening to see the lights in the garden.
In the pond we could see cherry petals floating on the surface.
The timber bamboo were spectacular at night.
Another day we went to nearby Arashiyama and saw more timber bamboo as we hiked.
Kristina happened to be wearing a shirt that matched the newly blooming azaleas. It was wonderful to see spring in Japan, with its wide variety of flowers.
At Ninna-ji we also saw incredible azaleas.
The azaleas made such a beautiful background, we could understand why so many people were taking selfies there, especially if one's attire matched the flowers.
Check out the color on this tree!
The blooming dogwood trees were also lovely.
They were glowing in the bright sunlight.
At the Heian Shrine people had tied wishes to bare branches, and at first they looked like blossoms.
We brought a picnic to Enryaku-ji and enjoyed views of the Hoke So Ji-in training hall and temple while we ate.
The timber bamboo were spectacular at night.
Another day we went to nearby Arashiyama and saw more timber bamboo as we hiked.
Kristina happened to be wearing a shirt that matched the newly blooming azaleas. It was wonderful to see spring in Japan, with its wide variety of flowers.
At Ninna-ji we also saw incredible azaleas.
The azaleas made such a beautiful background, we could understand why so many people were taking selfies there, especially if one's attire matched the flowers.
Check out the color on this tree!
The blooming dogwood trees were also lovely.
They were glowing in the bright sunlight.
Shrines and Temples
We brought a picnic to Enryaku-ji and enjoyed views of the Hoke So Ji-in training hall and temple while we ate.
The dragon fountain was out front of the main Enryaku-ji temple, as was the impressive bell tower.
Kaidan-in was our favorite building at this UNESCO World Heritage Site.
At Ninna-ji we visited Shinden and loved this gate with its cedar shingles and wood carvings.
Japanese gates were built to be frames through which to view the garden inside, and in this case we saw raked gravel, another gate and a beautiful pine tree through the frame.
Inside Shinden there was a pine tree painted on the screens.
We were able to walk around several buildings at Shinden like this one.
This Kannon sculpture had a lovely, weathered face.
We spent another fun day with Colin and Jon. This time we explored part of Daitoku-ji, a Zen temple complex with 22 sub temples.
A favorite garden was at Zuiho-in. It had vigorously raked sand that implied rough seas. The late afternoon sun accentuated the shadows and made the "waves" more dramatic.
Architecture and Art
And this was our first view of the museum up the stairs.
Once inside, Pete took this photo looking back toward the tunnel and bridge.
The view across the valley was expansive and reminded us that the Miho was built within a nature preserve. Just outside the building several 150 year old red pines had been planted after the building was completed.
Triangular shapes were used throughout.
Pei designed the museum to be 80% underground, including most of the galleries, so that the building would meld harmoniously into the mountain. Our favorite piece in the collection was the largest known Gandharan Buddha in the world.
Tadeo Ando's Dream Box at the Asahi Oyamazaki Museum was another architectural highlight.
The Asahi Oyamazaki collection of ceramics was a treat to view.
We also saw another Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin sculpture.
In part of a Yayoi Kusama exhibit called My Flower Room we saw her portrait.
The portrait was taken in front of Yellow Trees, which is considered one of her most essential paintings from the 1990s. Yellow Trees was originally titled "Sex Obsession (Not Surrealism)" to express Kusama's anger against Japan's repressive, paternalistic system and social conformity.
We took the shinkansen, high speed rail train to Tokyo.
We went to the Tokyo Skytree. At 634 meters it's the tallest structure in Japan and second tallest in the world.
Designed by Tadeo Ando primarily as a broadcasting tower, it opened to the public in 2012. We took the elevator up to floor 450 (so named because it's at a height of 450 meters).
We checked out the views of Tokyo as we walked all the way around the tower. The golden tower in the photo was the Tokyo Tower with its Eiffel Tower-inspired design.
We thought the Sakura Bridge over the Sumeda River was particularly interesting from above. It was built in 1985.
21_21 Design Sight was created by Tadeo Ando and fashion designer Issey Miyake. From Wikipedia we learned that the split-level concrete structure includes a hand-sanded steel roof (whose design was inspired by Issey Miyake's "A Piece of Cloth" philosophy) and 14 meter long glass panels.
The galleries were down these stairs.
We loved the exhibit New Planet Photo City featuring photographer William Klein and contemporary Asian photographers who were influenced by him. Shen Chao-Liang from Taiwan had a photo installation entitled STAGE that included time lapse color photographs like this one.
We visited the National Art Center, Tokyo again. It was designed by Kisho Kurokawa.
It took four years to build the five level structure of 48,000 square meters.
We enjoyed the shadows on the floor that were cast by the curved windows.
Outside a gallery we saw these the beginning of an exhibit entitled Koinobori Now! Installation by Reiko Sudo, Adrien Gardère and Seiichi Saito and were intrigued to check it out.
The installation included over 300 contemporary koinobori, carp streamers, swimming inside a gallery. We hung out on the bean bag chairs and looked at it for awhile.
Each carp streamer was unique and all the fabrics were designed by Reiko Sudo. Our favorites were the transparent fabrics that let light in as we looked through.
It took four years to build the five level structure of 48,000 square meters.
We enjoyed the shadows on the floor that were cast by the curved windows.
Outside a gallery we saw these the beginning of an exhibit entitled Koinobori Now! Installation by Reiko Sudo, Adrien Gardère and Seiichi Saito and were intrigued to check it out.
The installation included over 300 contemporary koinobori, carp streamers, swimming inside a gallery. We hung out on the bean bag chairs and looked at it for awhile.
Each carp streamer was unique and all the fabrics were designed by Reiko Sudo. Our favorites were the transparent fabrics that let light in as we looked through.
Food
We love Japanese food and we were happy to have three weeks to eat all our favorite foods. Here Pete is putting sauce on our okonomiyaki, savory pancakes.
Just a block away from our Airbnb was Hakaokitei, a company that makes noodles for restaurants and also has a 10-seat restaurant.
Their hours were 4 am to 1 pm, so we went a few times for elevenses. On the left is nishin soba, buckwheat noodles with a grilled sardine, and tamagotoji udon, thick wheat flour noodles - both bowls of noodles were delicious and much better than lembas bread.
We brought a few karē-pan, curry bread, to snack on at Ninna-ji temple. Curry was introduced into Japanese cuisine by the British (who got it from the Indians) and now there are curry houses throughout Japan, but our favorite way to eat Japanese curry is karē-pan.
We went to Light Up coffee with Colin and Jon.
They suggested we have lunch at Izusen in the Daitoku-ji temple complex. We had eaten there on our first trip to Japan in 2001, and were excited to return for another vegetarian teppatsu meal. This bowl is representative of our seven bowl meal: lots of seasonal tastes beautifully presented.
It was fun to eat outside under blooming maple trees, savoring all the wonderful flavors.
In the next course a fresh umeboshi plum had been lightly tempura'd on the left, and a warm soup of fresh bamboo shoots covered a shizo leaf-wrapped mochi cake.
At the end of the meal we felt full and satisfied, and all the bowls nested together like Russian dolls.
Colin and Jon told us about their favorite mackerel sushi place, Hanaore Shimogamo, so we went for lunch. The mackerel had been vinegared and pressed into rice, and it was outstanding.
We use Eater to find new restaurants to try. In Tokyo we were happy with the soba noodles plus mackerel and tempura sides at Kanda Matsuya restaurant.
This is a fish shaped cake called a taiyaki.
This is a fish shaped cake called a taiyaki.
Filled with red bean paste and served hot, it was delicious!
We took David Chang's recommendation and had lunch at Deli fu cious. Created by a sushi chef, we had #betterinJapan filet-of-fish sandwiches with fries and coleslaw.
After Japan...
... we will be in the US for the next few months. First we'll visit Pete's Mom and sister Denise in Las Vegas. Then we'll be in Irvine, volunteering to work on Katie Porter's Congressional campaign. Thanks for keeping up with us through our blog!
