Days 14 and 16: Heian-jingu, Shimogamo-jinja, Yasaka-jinja, and Kiyomizu-dera

It's been kind of rainy and cruddy on and off the last few days, but I've still managed to get out during the dry periods. The couple of times I've been out I've biked and hiked a ton so I didn't have the energy to put up pictures, so this is going to be a doubly long post. On Thursday I went to Heian-jingu after dropping some paperwork off at school.

That's the main shrine in the left background. This was taken near the main gate.

We paid about 600 yen (~6 dollars) to view the garden:

This tree branch was craaazy.

There was some herons and other cool stuff but I didn't bring my long lens so I couldn't get any decent pictures. You'll find that this becomes a theme.

Out of the garden and back at the shrine.

The main gate.

That torii in the background is huge.

Friday was rainy all day. I went to makudonarudo (McDonald's) and spent the rest of the day watching Netflix.

Saturday, however, I got out again and did lots of stuff. First I went to Shimogamo Shrine near Kamogawa (Kamo River) for a Ritsumeikan organized gathering. There was a Hanami festival going on with tons and tons of dance troops performing over the weekend.

I couldn't get great pictures of the dancers, but I wasn't about to try and get in front of parents. I thought it was kind of interesting that even in the same group dancers' ages went from kindergarten to retirement.

The food and souvenir vendors went on forever.

Entrance to Shimogamo-jinja

Saw this little guy (I think it's a skink), as soon as he noticed me he disappeared into a crack.

These funny little bugs were all over the surface of the water. Reminds me of those bugs from Super Mario 64. I know most of you won't get that reference, don't worry about it.

I started to get hungry so I went back to the vendor area outside the shrine:

These adorable little minibus food trucks were all over the place. I was pretty impressed with the amount of stuff they managed to cram in. They've all got like stoves, refrigerators, freezers, and espresso machines.

I headed down Kamogawa (river) towards Yasaka-jinja (shrine) on Shijo-dori (street). There were all kinds of cool hawks looking for dinner but again I didn't have the appropriate lens.

Entrance to Yasaka Shrine.

The main shrine

The stairs up to Anyo-ji (Buddhist temple)

Looking down at the city from in front of the temple

The temple

Looking down from behind the temple

There was a long winding path up the mountain behind the temple. This is about how dark it actually was, the camera eats up a lot of light even when it's dark out unless I tell it not to. Pretty spooky. I decided to turn around before going too far up because I wouldn't be able to see my way back if it got much darker.

After leaving the Yasaka-jinja/Anyo-ji area I headed towards Kiyomizu-dera. Kiyomizu-dera is possibly the most famous destination in all of Kyoto. Like if you're watching a movie that takes place in New York you'd see an establishing shot of the Statue or Liberty, or the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. If it took place in Kyoto you'd see Kiyomizu-dera. There's a long steep street leading up to the temple that's about a kilometer long lined with all kind of souvenir shops and restaurants. I didn't take pictures because I was really tired and my memory card was getting full.

The entire temple is a marvel of woodworking as there is not a single nail in the entire structure. I'm not actually sure if that applies to the entire compound or just the main structure. The main temple is built into a cliff side high above a garden filled with Sakura and other types of trees. The view is pretty breathtaking.

This is taken from the main structure, high above the garden, looking out at the city. You can see Kyoto Tower on the left.

This was with my aperture wide open

This is closer to what it really looked like, but those trees in the background were a pretty vivid pink.

Looking down at the lit forest below from an elevated walkway.

I'm sorry to say these pictures don't do much justice to how awesome it was in person. The color balance is pretty off in most of them and I didn't get any pictures of the main structure because it was insanely crowded. It's alright though, I'll try to go back some time before I leave and get some pictures of the structure during the daytime.