Kyoto Sakura Report, April 1, 2015

Hello Again!

Here’s today’s sakura report for Kyoto. In most places, the sakura trees are 80-100% in bloom.

Today, we traveled a bit to see some places outside of Kyoto City. Of course, we took a quick walk down Tatsumi-dori, in Gion, to see how that was doing. Then we went to Uji City, a little to the southeast of Kyoto City, then to Nara City. Both of the temples we visited are very beautiful just for their architecture, alone, but with sakura around them, they are even more special!

It rained again, today. It was not the best day for taking pictures, but we did our best. It was still a good day, even with the rain!

Gion District

Here’s what the cherry blossoms look like in Gion - 100% open, and you can see a few petals have started to fall to the ground.

Byodo-in Temple in Uji

Byodo-in Temple is special. It is like no other temple in Kyoto. It was recently renovated, and reopened at this time last year. It looks wonderful!

There are not too many sakura trees there, but just enough to add some beautiful touches of pink to my pictures! There are some very nice weeping sakura there. Some are in full bloom, and one or two are just starting to bloom, now.

Todai-ji Temple in Nara

After Byodo-in Temple, we took the train to Nara, to go see Todai-ji Temple. This is one of my favorite temples in Japan. The wooden temple building is so huge! And the Daibutsu (Very Big Buddha!) is also so big! Unbelievable! I love to walk around inside this massive temple. It makes me feel so small!

Outside, there are many sakura that are around 80% in bloom.

There are also so many deer! They are so cute! You have to be careful, though. They will take food from you, even if you don’t want them to! As cute as they are, they don’t like to be petted, either. Still, they make great pictures!

We made the best of the rainy day and saw some very nice places, today.

I am excited! Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny! Yay!

See you tomorrow!
Bua and Joe