Blossom, finally

It seems we have been a little lucky in Kyoto. This year has seen some of the earliest blossoms on record in Japan, so by the time we arrived (perfect for a regular season) it was all falling from the trees and there wasn't much to see. Oh well. So when we saw the blossom forecast last night we were a little surprised. Turns out that the late bloomers have sprung early and we are just catching them, the weeping and (apparently pretty rare) yellowish blossoms.

Walked around the east side of the city today, visiting Heian-ji Shrine, the amazingly quiet and serene Shoren-in Temple and the vast and somewhat under reconstruction Kiyomizu-dera Temple. This shot is from the gardens at Heian-ji, where we also participated in a tea ceremony. The matcha green tea is not really my thing, but the sweet dumpling definitely was. Flavoured with cherry blossom and not too sweet, it was tasty and the lady leading the ceremony could tell I thought so. And the name, no it couldn't just be called something like Twix, Snickers or even Starburst, it was called Watching Sakura Falling. The most astonishing thing of it all though, was that I managed to kneel properly through the whole event. A fact the magnitude of which will not be lost on my good friend Nori.

A bamboo forest tomorrow I think.