I spent most of the day at the Ryouanji Temple (龍安寺) in northwest Kyoto, which I often visit in the fall for its spectacular autumn scenery. I think today was my first visit during cherry-blossom season.

I was tickled to discover that the “weeping cherry” (シダレ桜) at the west end of the property were spectacular, both pink and white. Best earlier in the day... by noon the light was too harsh.

I haven't looked at the photos yet, but while flying through the grid of 881 shots to mark color-checker shots as part of my import routine, I thought this photo was promising enough to go ahead and post today.

Continued here...

I popped up to Shogunzuka the other day for the first time in ages, for what I hoped was a promising sunset that ended up being very hazy, lending more of a moody shrouded feeling than “dazzling”, but a little over-exuberance in Lightroom brings out a variety of dynamic results.

A couple of months ago I posted some similar shots in “Views of Kyoto From Shogunzuka Over The Years”, and some others last summer in “Anatomy of a Nice Kyoto Sunset”, so I worry I might wear out this kind of overprocessing that's best only in moderation, but I guess I'm a risk taker, so here we are. 🙂

None of these are as good as it truly was one special day a year and a half ago, as seen in “Unusually Dynamic Views of Kyoto from Shogunzuka”. That was so much better in real life than the photos.

This posts continues “Enjoying the Blossoms at the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park” from the other day, with more folks enjoying themselves, as seen through the uncommon perspective of 300mm at f/2.

(The mask, common in Japan during pollen season, is likely to help ease her allergies.)

Some of the unspecific shots of blossoms seem a bit mesmerizing to me...

At one point Paul Barr stopped by, and tried the 300m f/2 a bit himself...

On the way home I couldn't help but pause for a quick shot from time to time...

But mostly what I noticed on the way home was the utterly oppressive traffic that cherry blossoms and fall foliage bring to Kyoto, particularly on the outskirts like where I live in Okazaki. The roads where parking lots in directions that led to scenic areas, or, later in the day, in directions that led out of town.

Travel by motorcycle or scooter is a lot easier, but bicycle, train, and/or feet are much better. During this season, bus, taxi, and car are for the crazy or angelically patient.

Following up on “Temple Hopping in Kyoto with Katrin Philippar” from the other day, I left off as we entered the Kiyomizu Temple.

Photogenic sights abounded, but it was really crowded.

The lady in Kimono stood there for the longest time (multiple minutes), waiting for an opportunity for a nice shot for her photographer at the bottom of the stairs. Few people bothered to give her a wide berth, and I suppose that's understandable because it was crowded and the steps were for everyone, but the lady in black right next to her in the shot above seemed in particular determined to spoil any good shot, because she hovered in the immediate vicinity not just for a while, but for the entire time the girl stood there.

I eventually stopped paying attention, but later noticed them at the top of the steps when I was up there as well...

And later they moved to an unused set of stairs nearby...

At one point you come across a long set of stairs down, a favorite spot of mine to get people pictures...

Here's Anthony on these stairs six years ago, and a view looking up from halfway down.

It was very hazy, but Kyoto Tower still showed up in the background...

A nice atmosphere of fun and enjoyment can make up for otherwise-oppressive crowds. I saw it originally in “Cherry-Blossom Joie de Vivre in Kyoto” and many times since, including yesterday at Gosho. But it doesn't necessarily show up in photos, so something like this next shot is perhaps only cringe worthy...

The blossoms hadn't yet really started there yet:

I'm lacking a photo for context, but next to where I took the shot above was a wall with the most delicate little flowers. Each flower was little larger than the head of a pin....

After taking the winding path down to where the long stairway had descended to, we came across the Boy Scouts at the otowa no taki...

I write a bit about what they're doing here.

This looks like a path, but it's actually the sloped wall of a huge embankment, with folks leaning over a railing just out of frame to the top. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I took it, but the results are a bit disappointing.

I ended up using his camera to snap a shot of him and his lady. Sharp dressed and a gentleman to boot. I would have liked the chance to have a beer with him (but I suspect he drinks whiskey).

Leaving the temple grounds, the surrounding streets were packed well past the “pleasant” stage...

We escaped from the crowds down the pleasant alleyway that leads to the great restaurant that I wrote about last year in “Delicious Yuba Lunch at Junsei”....

The yuba lunch set at Junsei is a great value... for ¥2,150 you get a wide variety of little foods, all very Japanese, and the fun experience of combining it with yuba that forms in front of your eyes. Katrin, in her first trip to Japan, enjoyed every aspect of it, as do I every time I go there.

After lunch we dove back into the crowds...

Of course, when I complain about the crowds, the old billboard text comes to mind: “You're not stuck in traffic. You are traffic.” 🙂 In these cases, I try to turn the crowds to my advantage by snapping interesting(?) pictures of them.

As always, you can see other shots from the same area that have appeared on my blog over the years via the “nearby photos” link under each picture. There are plenty from this area.

It's in this mess of people that the lovely ladies in “Impromptu Kimono Photo Shoot Near the Kiyomizu Temple” found a wonderful background for their shots.

Somewhere in the small streets as we got further from the bedlam, we came across a display of art that clearly took skill to produce, but as with all art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and in the eye of this beholder (me), this art was hideous beyond words.

I found the gall of this note to be amusing:

I popped over to the Imperial Palace Park (“Kyoto Gosho”, 京都御所) yesterday for some blossom Joie de Vivre kind of shots of folks enjoying the many blossoms... mostly peach and cherry these days. It's the same place I took a bunch of blossom closeups seen two weeks ago in “The Buds and Blossoms are Just Peachy”, but this time the lens was the very special the Nikkor 300mm f/2.

It was quite crowded, but nevertheless still quite pleasant.

The bokeh with this lens can be great (such as here), but the bright branches in the background of the shot above seem pretty harsh to me.

She had just taken a drink of water, and then noticed that her shirt was suddenly wet. At that age, she probably doesn't notice any relationship between the two events. Cute.

I like this kind of shot, but it's tough at 300mm because you have to be so far away and can't have anyone in between. Patience is required in large amounts with this lens in this environment.

I think these are cherry (on a tree across from the colorful peach), but normally the blososms come out first, then eventually as they start to fall off the leaves come out, but in this case the leaves are well formed before the blossoms are even fully out. It's a strange year. Cherry blossoms in general are very early this year in Kyoto.

Some more pleasant scenes...

The guy above was about the only person in kimono the whole time, quite a bit different than the lovely scenes last year. In this I was disappointed.

Continued here...