Oideyasu! Please take off your shoes.

Northern Kyoto sakura (North of Imadegawa Street) are in fine bloom right now. Anything south of Imadegawa is fading and falling now, which is beautiful in it’s own way and worth seeing.

More new pictures at my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyoto/

Go to my flickr photostream (username: Kyoto) for the latest photographs of Kyoto sakura.

I jumped out of the way of a car while taking a picture of an “iroha momiji” maple tree around the corner from my home, and spun the camera accidentally, producing a nice effect. So I tried it again a couple times and this was the third shot.

The Naginata Hoko leads off the parade of Yama and Hoko on the morning of July 17th every year, carrying the “chigo”, the boy selected as the parade’s spiritual “Grand Marshal.”

The Gion Matsuri yoiyama on Shijo St before it got crowded. Anyone who has been there knows that this is not an exaggeration– this is what it looks like BEFORE it gets crowded.