Kyoto: Day 2

The next day, I woke up early and got a front row spot to view the Gion Matsuri parade. It was huge!!! And really amazing. Some lady ran through the crowd before it started and handed out a flyer telling you what each cart was and what it symbolized, but it was all in Kanji. I got the gist of it though. Some of them were amazingly tall, as tall as the surrounding buildings even.

And it was just as crowded as the night before, if not more so because we were shoved onto the sidewalk instead of having the whole street to spread out. The picture above is of a corner, where they would do a little dance with fans to turn the cart 90 degrees. It was really cool and interesting. I don't know much about Japanese traditional culture, but Kyoto was steeped in it.

After the parade, I decided to explore the area. First I randomly walked around the Gion area (of which the Gion Matsuri is named after). This area was renovated so that it has the old-style architecture of ancient Japan. It was really beautiful and peaceful to walk along the canal here.

Here is just an example of what some of the streets looked like. The stores and restaurants all looked like buildings I had previously only seen in period dramas or something. haha. It was really cool. Especially when I found this tree growing out of the top floor of this building.

Just like Tokyo, I found cats all over the place, but after talking with some friends, I think it's just me. Cat's aren't that common I guess. I just happen to see them everywhere I go. But this one was so cute, and after I pet him, he rolled on his back and stretched out. haha, he was a good guard-cat for the shrine I found right next to him. ^^

This is a place called Yasaka Shrine. I don't know much about it, because I just found it by randomly strolling around, like always, but it was gigantic! It just kept going up and up into the mountains. There was a park, a cemetery, and huge tori gates, and funky old twisty trees.

After Yasaka Shrine (I spent like an hour there just looking around and climbing steps; it's really beautiful), I made my way back through Gion towards downtown Kyoto to do some shopping.

I spent the rest of the day eating dango, searching for the perfect kokeshi doll, and just site-seeing and trying to talk to as much as possible. Kyoto is relaxing.