I took my camera when I walked to lunch through a small area of eastern Kyoto yesterday. These are some of the shots I took along the way.

Both lunch and the walk back will be their own posts...

Continued here...

Picking up from yesterday's intro post on the Ishiyama Temple (石山寺) half an hour away in Otsu, Japan, here are a few more shots from early in the visit to the large mountainous grounds...

To be continued...

These were all at the entrance to a temple in Otsu that Paul Barr introduced me to today. I haven't yet looked at the rest of the photos, but it was quite an impressive place, so I have hope that at least a few good shots came of it.

Continued here...

The other day after a short stroll through the Chishaku-in Temple in eastern Kyoto, we made our way behind it to search for a set of stairs that Stéphane had suggested. We found it.

At the top of the small set of steps was a park with cherry blossoms and kids playing, beyond which was a large wooden gate building...

Paying a scant 50 yen (US$ 0.60) to pass through, we found the main set of stairs....

Just as we started up, someone came to jog the stairs, reminding me of north-east Kyoto's Tanukitanisan Fudouin Temple where athletes train by [...]

Today I visited eastern Kyoto's Chishaku-in Temple (智積院) with Paul Barr and Nicolas Joannin. I'd driven by its large temple grounds hundreds of times, but had never stopped in, and perhaps couldn't have picked a better day. It was the first short-sleeve day of the year, and the open grounds were dotted with all kinds of blossoming trees...

To be continued...