Kyoto

Where are we?












A Japanese Garden
The Rokuon-ji Temple and Golden Pavilion gardens were beautiful but crowded. Still, I managed to take some of my best digital images here. The bridge over a lily pond looks as if it came right out of a Monet canvas!


















Yukata
We arrived in Kyoto smack in the middle of the annual 3-day Gion Festival with streets closed and parade goers dressed up in their summer kimonos in 95 degree weather trying to stay cool. Legend has it that twins abandoned and separated at birth crossed paths years later and instantly recognized each other only to part ways again. Karma...

Our 5 minute taxi ride to David Kidd and Morimoto's house for dinner turned into an hour!

Gion Festival Float
As I sat between an elderly Japanese couple, I listened to their explanation, in Japanese of course, of the Gion legend. Grandmother offered me a fan and the gentleman to my left handed me a brochure with images of the 32 floats I should expect to see. I repeated what I could to much good hearted laughter. Everyone nodded in approval. I had planned to dress up in a yukata to blend in but it was too hot! Even at a crowded parade, the Japanese were orderly, courteous, and patiently waited for the first float (pictured left) to round the corner pulled ever so slowly by a team of men.


Somewhere, a gentle breeze causes a flame to flicker in the dark. On your journey you will pass places for the first and last time in your life. It is worthwhile to stop and reflect. The object of beauty, of desire, is left alone in peace where it is found; to be recalled among many others at the end of days. A parting reminder from the Miho to leave one's burden behind. It is enough to have an image of it. I have seen it. It is mine. I am nearly home....