Part deux begins now:-

I’m back again, and with more trees. Last time I showed you quite a few tree photos, and the places we went and trees we saw were wonderful, but I have to say that the next destination turned out to be one of the best displays yet. We had tried to find this place once before, but didn’t manage to find it. We caught a train out to a town called Kameoka, and then we were supposed to catch a bus out to the spot where the trees were, but there was no bus for a very long time, and when we tried to walk out there, well, we couldn’t find it. In fact, this whole shemozzle led us to finding the Hozugawa boat ride, so, in fact, it turned out to be quite fortuitous. We have since had two rides down the Hozugawa and enjoyed every minute.

BCV, obviously

Now, back to the current story, our visit to the Yawaragi no michi area (finally). This time we went via car, and we took our friends Lilia and Yuval with us. Lilia had suggested we take a hanami journey somewhere together, but everywhere I suggested she had been to in the recent past (Lilia writes a public blog and so is always looking for something new to write about). Finally I remembered our not so successful search for this blossom walk, and luckily she hadn’t been there before.

It was about an hours drive there, and I discovered that the distance between the train station and the walk was a long way – a very long way – so not surprising we didn’t find it. Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of people there, but the area was large enough that it didn’t seem too crowded. The local council has obviously gradually expanded the tree plantings, and we could see that there were some fairly recent plantings along the river. Apparently there are about 1,500 trees and the walk along the riverside extends for about 1km.

We took some picnic provisions with us and enjoyed sitting under a very large tree while partaking our repast. There were, in fact, many spots to sit and enjoy this amazing place, and many families, couples and friends were doing just that. It was a glorious, sunny day, not overly warm, but pleasant for walking. While we were there we saw some interesting sights, including a paraglider over the hills, a woman who had brought her dog and a chair on which she had placed the dog for photographs under the sakura (!), and a man who had brought a little person made from cardboard, who he was also photographing under the sakura…

Where we ate our lunch

The cardboard person strolling

All in all a wonderful journey, in beautiful surroundings, with good friends and food and some rather interesting people. On top of all this, there was no entry fee only a parking fee of ¥500 (although I think they could ask for donations towards upkeep and improvement of facilities – there was only one western style toilet) and the cost of petrol to get there.

Talking about interesting sights, during the hanami time we had a dirigible flying over our house for a few days. We first noticed the sound of a flying vehicle, but not the usual helicopter sound (we have many, many helicopters flying around our area, which we assume are mostly for tourists). It also didn’t sound like a light plane, so we just had to check what it was, and there above our house was an Asahi advertising blimp. With so many tourists in Kyoto for hanami, it is obviously worth the cost. Funnily enough, on the bottom of the blimp it said, in English, “Look Up Japan”, which you can only see if you are already looking up…

The last place we visited during this period was at the suggestion of Lilia, to a shrine that is very near Kyoto University, where she recently completed her doctorate. It is called Yoshida Jinja and was founded in 859CE by the Fujiwara clan, which the Encyclopaedia Britannica describes as a “dynastic family that, by shrewd intermarriage and diplomacy, dominated the Japanese imperial government from the 9th to the 12th century”. Further, it states that “The power and authority of the Fujiwara family rested not on military prowess but on political strategy and on the family’s special relationship to the imperial family, which it carefully cultivated and exploited. This relationship stemmed from the Fujiwara policy of maintaining attachment to the imperial family through the marriage of Fujiwara daughters to emperors. It meant that the Fujiwara daughters were empresses, that their grandsons and nephews were emperors, and that members of their family, including its lesser branches, received all the patronage. Thus, the Fujiwara clan chieftain, whether he held office or not, could manipulate the reins of government.” Interesting.

Anyway, this shrine was very important to the emperors – essentially it was the guardian shrine for the Heian-kyo (present day Kyoto) Palace. It came to be called Yoshida Jinja in reference to a new denomination of Shinto created by the Head Priest of the shrine, Yoshida Kanetomo, some time during the late 1400s. Yoshida Shinto no longer exists as a separate denomination, mainly because it essentially took over as the Shinto religion. Basically, by the time he became head priest Buddhism and Shintoism had become effectively intermingled and he was concerned that Shinto was the original Japanese religion, with Buddhism having been imported from China. So he set about re-establishing Shinto as a separate religion from Buddhism, obviously quite successfully.

The shrine is located on one of the hills to the east of Kyoto (where we are also located, just a little further south from there), and within the grounds there are many smaller sub-shrines. The majority of the land, however, is wooded with paths winding through the trees, which makes it a nice place to walk. The reason Lilia mentioned it is because at the back of the shrine land there is a sub-shrine with a number of torii gates lining the walk to the shrine. In the gaps between these gates there are blossom trees, which makes for a very pretty walk and nice photos, when they are in bloom. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, most of the blossom had gone. Still, like I said a nice walk, with good views of Kyoto and the blimp, which had clearly followed us!

One thing I should mention from our visit to the shrine is the sighting of a bride and groom prior to their wedding ceremony. I think I have mentioned before that Shinto takes care of the ‘life’ things, such as marriage and children blessings, house blessings etc, while Buddhism takes care of the afterlife things, ie funerals and cemeteries, etc. For the traditional parts of the marriage ceremonies, the brides and grooms wear traditional clothing, with most brides choosing to wear a white kimono and interesting white headwear, which I thought you might like to see. I have used a photo from the electronic oracle, as the bride we saw had yet to put it on, though I saw it on a bench ready for the bride to don.

Waiting around

The bottom two photos show a bride and groom during the proceedings and a bride in close up.

Before I sign off, I should mention that our furry grandchildren are two weeks old today 😊. Their ears have all unfurled and their eyes are fully open, so we are making sure to let them see us, as much as is possible since they are spending most of their time drinking and sleeping. Tahlia is back to her supermodel shape (slim with very long legs), and she is doing a great job of looking after them. Unfortunately all of this means it is very hard to get any photos of them.

That’s all for now

Cheers!

Some strange people, or is it blossom sickness?

A couple of cosplay girls being photographed

Even the pavers have blossom on them

Not sure if these are two separate birds, or just the one moving around so that it is photographed a lot

This cafe was up near the summit of the Yoshida shrine. Obviously popular, because there was a queue to get in. The bottom photo shows an old concrete table and bench there.

Lichen on  a cherry tree.

Ending on a non-blossom note, to prepare you for next time…