I'm not sure what's with the bull near the entrance of the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine (北野天満宮), but people come up to rub its snout.... perhaps for good luck, I suppose.

Yesterday's post was about the temple's plum orchard, but there's plenty to see in the free open areas of the shrine. The tree near the bull is the closest to the entrance, so I usually start my visit there.

I actually can't always tell the difference among the blossoms (plum, peach, apricot, and cherry). There might be some peach here, I dunno. Lots of variety...

This shrine allows tripods, quiet [...]

As I mentioned in my previous post, the plum is starting to bloom in Kyoto. One of the famous spots for it is the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine (北野天満宮), which has a large orchard that you can visit for 600 yen (about US$7). It's not worth paying to see the orchard yet, though, because the blossoms are pretty sparse. I got my calendar confused, so paid to go in...

Close ups on individual branches are still fruitful, but you can get plenty of that in the free open area of the shrine. It's when the orchard is brimming with blossoms that [...]

It's still quite early for plum blossoms, but having apparently been quite confused, I went to the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine (北野天満宮) today expecting them to be in their prime. Most trees were still bare, but there were still ample blossoms to be found here and there.

I seem to have bad luck with this temple... my first visit five years ago resulted in a blog post titled "Late to the Party: Plum Blossoms at the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine", where I talk about how past their prime they were.

Then the next year I stopped by in January expecting to find [...]

Last autumn I finally made my first visit to the sprawling mountainside Shugakuin Imperial Villa in north-east Kyoto. It's one of three imperial (connected with the Emperor of Japan) sites in Kyoto that you can visit via reservation, but reservations can be difficult to come by. For example, other than a few time slots next month, every online reservation slot is already full through the end of May.

However, foreigners can stop by the Imperial Household Agency office (on the grounds of the imperial-palace park, here) to pick up a near-term reservation if any have opened up. If you're lucky [...]

As I mentioned the other day in "Candid Portrait of an Athlete", 10-year-old Anthony has been playing water polo for about a year. His first actual game was last month, during a series of matches over the course of a three-day tournament at the Namihaya Dome (なみはやドーム) in Osaka.

Photographically, the situation was pretty bad... spectators we were behind glass and had very limited mobility....

The large windows on the opposite wall made for blinding backlight when the sun was out. One day it was pouring rain, so the light was more even then.

Anthony was apprehensive about participating because [...]