千日回峰行：京都大廻り
I didn’t write about it here, because I’m not allowed to take pictures, but last year I was invited to participate in supporting the monk Hoshino Endo as he performed 100 straight nights of traversing 40 kilometers of mountain trails (days 701-800) in a tradition that goes back more than 1,000 years on Mt. Hiei in Kyoto: the Sen-nichi kaihougyo, the 1,000-day devotional circuit. I was only able to get up in the middle of the night and get out to Sekizan-zen-in Temple a few times for Endo’s 3 a.m. …

Greg in kimono and hakama after his Shichi-Go-San (literally “7-5-3″) blessing ceremony at Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto, where he was blessed after his birth in the O-miya-mairi ceremony. Shichi-go-san is for girls ages 7 and 3, and boys age 5. Greg is only 4 until next February, but according to the old way of counting age, you are age one at birth, so he could go this year or next. Greg insisted on wearing the green kimono set (blue is the norm), which surprised us, but it looked pretty snazzy …

I probably should have posted this a while ago…
Kurama Fire Festival (6 min, 37 MB Quicktime)
The Kurama Himatsuri, or Fire Festival, is held every October in a tiny mountain village in northern Kyoto. Progressively larger torches are paraded up and down this one-street town by teams in traditional costume, as a thumping taiko beat stokes the enthusiasm. Finally, fulfilling the ancient prophesy, Bobby Valentine is mystically conjured out of the sparks and smoke.

First unedited clips posted on top page at www.planetkyoto.com

We woke up to a snowstorm on Friday, the first time we had more than a few flakes this winter, but by midmorning it seemed to be melting, and then it started raining. So that Greg might have a chance to stomp around in snow just once before the spring comes, we got on the Eizan train and headed upslope to Kurama.
Sure enough, it was still snowing further on up the line, and Greg had fun crunching through the snow up the road in Kurama. Yoshiko suggested that since we …