And see cherry blossoms I did! I was lucky in that my conference landed in the beginning of April, traditionally the optimal time to see cherry blossoms (sakura) in Kyoto. I was unlucky in that this was their earliest cherry blossom season on record. Cherry blossoms have a notoriously short shelf life, so by the time I landed it was clear they were already on the downslope of their bloom - some trees were bare from the blossoms having already come and gone. Regardless, there were still a lot of trees with plenty of blossoms still on their branches. Below is just a small selection of the many, many, many pictures I took of the flowers. They were just so beautiful and ethereal!
 | ||||||
I also some cool wildlife walking around, like this bird outside one of the temples. I thought it was a carved statue, until it turned and blinked at me.
This was the garden of the Kyoto international conference center, where I've been spending 12+ hour days. Luckily it's quite a beautiful backdrop, with the koi ponds in the foreground and the cherry blossoms and hills as backdrop. On the left by the water you can see a crane that was flying back and forth over the ponds.
One food-related note: the food is much much weirder than I remember from last time. Maybe it's because I'm eating "fancier" hotel and conference food this time, instead of scraping by as a poor graduate student, or maybe I'm getting more crotchety in my old age. Either way, it's been difficult to get a solid meal during my time here. Whether it's salad and potato salad with my breakfast plate (see below), or shrimp and squid lurking in the spaghetti at the buffet lunch, it's been a bit touch and go. Thank goodness for 24-hour 7-elevens and their endless supply of cheap and tasty konbu onigiri. Now that's the food I remember eating in Kyoto on my last trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment