2016-03-12, Kyoto

  I went to Kyoto to see the weeping plums at Jonangu shrine where I saw them in full bloom 4 years ago, but this winter was warmer and the flowers had already fallen.  

Zannen, as they say.  (Oh well / too bad).

But, since I spent the day with Yuko, a soon to be coworker in the kindergarten/nursery school, it was a great day anyway!  We passed this on the way.

And then we arrived at Jonangu - without getting lost once since Yuko found her way around easily and I didn't have to rely on my TERRIBLE sense of direction.

We wondered what kind of tree this was.  Those round things look sort of like nests but there
doesn't really seem to be a nest or bed area for the eggs.

Unfortunately the trees were almost bare...

Yuko

I love the twists and turns of plum trunks and branches.

But, lucky you, I took some pictures of the same trees in full bloom off my previous 

blog to show you what it must have looked like a week or two ago.  

(I don't know why I can't move all of them to the middle of the page, when I try they disappear.)

That's what we missed this year.  I'm going to have to be very careful about the cherry blossoms.  But the short time one can see these beautiful flowers - ume and cherry - are part of what makes them so special.  And it makes you feel so lucky when you do get to see them in full bloom.

There were other pretty areas in the garden as well.

I think this is some sort of sculpture, I don't think it's covering for plants but I could be wrong.

A gigantic, twisty red pine.  The bark reminds me of the manzanita  trees in Davis, CA.

Then we went for a nice lunch.  So pretty.

And on to Fushimi Inari which is the head of the Inari sect (?) of Shinto shrines.

Kitsune (foxes) are supposed to be the messengers to gods so you often see fox statues at shrines.

Here they made fox senbei (crackers) and cookies and they sold foods that foxes are supposed to like or are named after them.  Inarizushi and kitsune udon being two specialties and grilled sparrow - sparrow supposedly being a favorite of foxes.

The main shrine.

He's holding rice or wheat (?) for a good harvest.

There are said to be 1000 torii gates going up this mountain.

Here and there are these areas of bunches of old shrines - a little spooky and 

would make for a great Halloween night outing!

The writing on each torii is states the donor's name and where they are from.

LOTS of people at the first section but fewer and fewer the farther up you go.

Just in case you don't know how...
There were foreigners from all over - so many languages!

The bigger the torii the bigger the donation.

The main entrance.

Back to Kyoto station where we found a import store and I got some cheese and Yuko picked up some tea.  Then to end the day on a sweet note....

My 2 favorite places in Kyoto station  the Uji tea ice crea-m shop where I got this - hojicha (roasted green tea) and matcha (powdered green tea) ice cream with sweet azuki beans and mochi.  And the great bakery next to it where I picked up some sesame seed bread.  

Which I'm going to have with some cheese for dinner right now.  Bye!!!