a walk under sakura

Rivers and swans

Today, after going to my usual beauty salon, I dropped at some places I had wanted to visit again.



This is Kamo-gawa River in Kyoto (gawa means river), the largest one in the city.

Both riversides are so wide and open that they make comfortable places to walk or cycle along.








Sanjo Bridge over the river

This is famous for being the end of industrial trails from eastern part of Japan in the Edo Period (about 200 years ago). Various commodities used to be carried from regions into Capital Kyoto(at that time) through those trails. (Kyoto locates in Western Japan)




When this bridge and the river are viewed from the south, they look like



this! Pretty night view, isn't it? :D
(I took this photo the other day)















This is Takase-gawa River, running just close, parallel to the Kamo-gawa. It is quite smaller compared to the Kamo-gawa, but with those willow trees on the bank, it creates so picturesque views, which I like, everywhere along it.













I enjoyed seeing the rivers much and went to Rokkakudo Temple.



the main gate











the precincts









What make this temple remarkable are: it is said to be the birthplace of ikebana, traditional Japanese flower arrangement art. There is a big cherry tree which is said to bloom so excellent in spring(I've never seen it), and, I didn't know about it, but,


there are swans on the pond in the precincts! I think the combination of 'swan and temple' sounds a bit rare, so I was just surprised and excited to see them :)


However, I couldn't take the closer shots of them, because the sign says, "No getting close to or feeding swans; they will bite you."

...?? Swans BITE us?! I've never heard of that!! Did you know? How shocking.





Anyway, I will keep on discovering something interesting in this city... :)

posted by asta @ 7:40 PM