Yonezawa Beef Dinner

We went to Yonezawa, Yamagata prefecture, in the North East area of Japan.
We stayed at a fabulous inn, Toki-no-yado Sumire, and enjoyed Yonezawa beef dinner.

Rose Glass Beads

Recently I have been making rose parts and several kunds of rose glass beads with them.

Lotus Flowers in Hokongo-ji Temple

Hokongo-ji Temple is located near JR Hanazono Station. The temple is famous for its garden with flowers.
At the beginning of early in July, the lotus flowers on the pond and in many flowerpots in the garden begin to bloom.
I took some pictures of the temple and the garden.

There also some stone jizo statues in the garden.

The tomb of Akechi Mitsuhide by the Shirakawa River

After having lunch at Moriko, the Chinese restaurant, we visited the tsuka, the small tomb, of Akechi Mitsuhide, who killed Oda Nobunaga, the famous samurai warrior leader.
Akechi Mitsuhide has been thought to be a betrayer, because he killed his master, but he has been reevaluated recently among historians. The tomb is located by the Shirakawa river.

Ken-nin-ji Temple and Flower Gardens

Ken-nin-ji Temple is located at the end of Hanami-koji Street in Gion area.
Ken-nin-ji is the oldest zen temple in Kyoto.
It is also famous for the picture of Fujin Raijin(the gods of wind and thunder) drawn by Tawaraya Sotatsu, the famous painter in Edo period.

We can see nice zen gardens and pictures on the paper slides.

We can also see the picture of twin dragons on the ceiling of the major building.

There are independent temples in Kenchuji like Ryosoku-in and Rei-gen-in, each temples are famous for Amacha flower gsrden and han-ge-sho flower garden.

In Ryosoku-in, from May 29 to June 7 we can see han-ge-sho  garden. The edge of the Han-ge-sho leaves  turn white in esrly summer and look like flowers. We can enjoy the very  serene garden there.

There also are two famous tea ceremony room.

In Rei-gen-in Temple, we can enjoy beautiful Amacha flowers in early summer.

Amacha flowers look like hydrangea flowers.

We can enjoy Amacha(sweet tea made from Amacha lesves) and sweets there.

There are very peculiar Koma-inu(the gsrdian animal made of stone) in Ken-nin-ji.

One is the shape of a wild boar and the other is a tiger.

Mifune(three boats) Festival

On May 19th, Mifune Festival was held on the Katsura River near Togetsu Bridge.
There were festival attendants dressed in Heian period costume performing as Seisho-Nagon, an essayist in Heian period, girl servants, dancers, and musicians on the boats.

Chinese Restaurant, Moriko, and Jibo-sha, the cafe along the Shirakawa River

Walking from Keihan Sanjo Station along the Shirakawa River, we went to the Chinese Restaurant, Moriko. The restaurant serves Kyoto taste Chinese meal.
We had fried rice, ramen, spring roll.
They were all delicious.

After having lunch, we continued walking along the Shirakawa River and got to Nanz
Sosui Museum. From there we walked along the ex-incline railroad.
Walking there was very interesting.

After that, we went to Konchi-in temple, near Nanzenji Temple. Nanzenji Temple is very famous and always crowded, but Konchi-in Temple was not crowded and we enjoyed very serene time seeing beautiful garden.

We walked back along the Shirakawa River again. We took a rest and had coffee and cookies at a cafe, named Jibo-sha.