Posted on July 21st, 2009 under Japan. Tags: arashiyama, japan pictures, kyoto. Comments: 1

In the Arashiyama area of Kyoto we rented bikes and road mostly north into the Sagano area. The last line of homes before running into the mountains (just east of Adashino-Nenbutsu-ji (化野念仏寺)) consisted of some fine ones with a thatch roof. Farming was still going on in the surrounding neighborhood. That some properties also included cherry trees in full bloom put a smile on my face.

Posted on February 4th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: arashiyama, buildings, cherry blossoms, japan pictures, kyoto, sagano, sakura, thatch roof. Comments: 1

“That trees, at least Japanese trees, have souls cannot seem an unnatural fancy to one who has seen the blossoming of the umenoki and the sakuranoki. This is a popular belief in Izumo and elsewhere. It is not in accord with Buddhist philosophy, and yet in a certain sense it strikes one as being much closer to cosmic truth than the old Western orthodox notion of trees as ‘things created for the use of man.’” (Lafcadio Hearn, 1894, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, p. 358)

Posted on January 3rd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: arashiyama, cherry blossoms, japan pictures, kyoto, lafcadio hearn, sakura. Comments: None

“When we reached Arashiyama, we walked towards the Togetsu Bridge…

One could see the Hozu River from the path. We were exactly by the dam north of the Togetsu Bridge. The Ranzan hills on the opposite bank were heavy with gloomy green, but at just that point a vivid white streak of foam stretched across the river and the air was full of the water’s roar.

We walked along the river until we reached the Kameyama Park at the end of the road. There was a good number of boats on the river…

At the gate we turned back and looked once more at the Hozu River and the green foliage of Arashiyama.” (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, p. 116-118)

I’m having a most fabulous time reading this book that features images I encountered just last year even though the book is set in the late 1940s.

If you click on the above image to make it larger you will be able to read a sign that says ボートのりば on the right which means something like “boat launch” or “boat boarding area.” You can also see a couple of different style empty boats on the opposite shore. I’ll show you some pictures of people in the boats that we encountered further up the river in a future blog entry.

Posted on October 18th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: arashiyama, japan pictures, kyoto, yukio mishima. Comments: None