Since lanterns have become my new favourite thing, I knew I had to get these two shots, and they certainly weren't easy! After going around the main building, you climb some steps to the top of the shrine, but the steps were very busy, with tons and tons of people, so I had to lift my camera over some peoples heads as I was walking! A definite speed shot!
We finally made it to Kiyomizu-dera, the shrine we had intended to get to. It was a very, very busy place...and full of lots of high school student! I made them all giggle, when they said Hello, I made them say How are you...I'm fine! Lots of giggles! There is a big walk around the shrine, but at the bottom you can see the lovely pagoda and entrance gate!
I hadn't seen my family in several months, and I really missed them a lot! Shelby had gotten even taller it seemed, and even gotten her ears pierced! Noone had told me! It was nice just to see them again and I do love taking photos of them. I even got one of the three of them together, all smiling and not too much squinting!
Right before we got to Kiyomizu-dera, at the bottom of the hill was Shonin's Memorial. I have no clue who Shonin was, but the memorial was very pretty, and there were monks there chanting! It was a nice place to visit and the actual memorial itself had a lot of flowers and incense burning. It wasn't appropriate to take photos, but it sure was a lovely place!
After a whirlwhind day in Tokyo, we went to Kyoto the next morning, mainly for a parade and a famous fire festival. We came to town in the rain, and found out that the parade had been cancelled due to the rain. Thankfully, we were quite close to a very famous shrine, so we wandered out to the shrine. On the way, we found this little shrine. It was so small, it took less than a minute to walk around, but it was worth some photos, especially of the sake drums!
We went to Ginza for some quick purikura, and to have dinner with Jack and Jean. We couldn't find any purikura, but we did have a nice time wandering down the streets in the rain. It was so nice there, and all lit up! There were lots of shops I know from home - Abercrombie, Zara, and all sorts! It made me feel so nice to be back somewhere that feels like home!
In Japan, you see some really, weird, downright creepy and strange things. In this case, I've just seen funny signs, candy and clothes. But this car takes the biscuit...I saw it driving down the road, and caught up to it when it stopped at a red light! I was really pleased, because I hadn't counted on getting a photo of it! Risa said it is a car for a radio station in Tokyo...how cool is that!
