michael lambe

Just a few snapshots from last Sunday. We were too late for the antiques market but we had a bit of a stroll around Toji’s temple grounds anyway.

Then on into town for a light meal at Vanilla (which you can read more about here).

We stayed there for a while and had a bit of a [...]

Last night Mewby and I went to see the illuminated aumtumn leaves at Kodaiji temple. It was the last night of the illuminations so it was pretty crowded. The crowds do tend to take away from the experience a bit – but what can you do? This is Japan. Here are some pictures.

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Here’s a couple of modern day Gion Festival traditions you won’t see on today’s Deep Kyoto posting. The traditional purikura (print club) picture:

The traditional queue for the convenience store toilet.

The traditional post festival retreat to the peace of Joao.

More pictures up here: Gion Festival.

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Let’s see. It was my work friend Matt’s last night of drinking before he becomes a poppa last Friday. So I ended up pretty wasted (naturally) and even after Matt had gone, continued drinking with Andrew and his friend Mike. The booze (among other things… but mainly the booze) having made us all emotional [...]

It’s Setsubun, the day when people throw beans at demons (who knows why?) so I wanted to see some guys in demon costumes getting pelted at Rozanji but unfortunately left it too late and got there in time to see a sea of umbrellas instead (shocking weather today). The matsuri at Yoshida Jinja was a [...]

Kibune is very pretty (but very cold) at this time of year…

A walk in the woods…

Kibune shrine….
And there were lights on the river. I’m not sure why…
On the way home, they turned the lights off on the train so we could enjoy the sight of all the illuminated red and gold leaves around us, and [...]

The light-up at Kiyomizudera continues until December 7th.
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I had a visit from Udo and Fumi yesterday, which was nice, and we went to Shimogamo shrine and took some pictures. Hover your mouse over for extra info:
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Note the three-legged crows. I was curious about these and it seemed like a good excuse for a chat with one [...]

This is just one of those things that always puts a smile on my face when I see it. However, though I’ve seen Japanese rockabilly dancers doing their thing in both Fukushima and Tokyo this is the first time I’ve seen it in Kyoto (just outside City Hall last Sunday incidentally). And there does seem [...]

I went to Takeisao Shrine on Funaoka Yama today. It’s called a “yama” which means “mountain” but it’s really just a small hill. Actually, all the small hills around Kyoto are called “yama”. Perhaps Kyoto people just can’t bring themselves to admit how small their hills are. I think Oda Nobunaga (one of Japan’s founding [...]