Last days

We visited so many great restaurants and cafés! So friendly and sweet people! Even without common language it is possible to communicate :)

Namikawa Cloisonné museum. This place is also very interesting because of it's many beautiful details. It is over 100 years old house but somehow it feels so moder with shojis made of glass and having windows in inner sliding doors. This is again a home and a studio of Japanese famous artist Namikawa Yasuyuki. His Cloisonné works are famous all around the world and not so many of his work remained in Japan - But here you could see some of his works. So beautiful but photos were not allowed except in the garden.





Nice Jazz café next to Demachiyanagi station. My parents visited the dorm where I live and we had walk at the Kamogawa river. 



Fushimi Inari is still one of my favourite places and this was the 4th time for me to climb up to the mountain and see all the thousands of torii gates again. I'm actually very proud of my parents by coming all the way up :)


On our last day together we went to Heijan Jingus garden.  From window the day looked sunny and warm, so we ended up freezing without jackets and warm clothes. In here we saw the first cherry blossoms! It is a shame that my parents didn't get the opportunity to see sakura in its full bloom but at least here we saw some trees :)





I can't belive that the three weeks went by so fast! It was absolutely fantastic to have my family here (Leo, Tule tule tänne kesällä ja Kaija, meikäläinen ottaa niin paljon kirsikakukkakuvia jahka pääsevät täyteen kukkaan!) and it was nice to take everyting easy and not to rush around. Great days and good memories!

Tea ceremony and Japanese ambiance

Plum blossoms at Kitano Tenmangu. So many different colours from white to dark pink mixed with all kind of lanterns. So beautiful!

There were also very good exhibition of Alphonse Mucha's work at Kyoto railways station. There is a "skyway" kind of path in the roof of the station that can be walked and the view is quite nice.


One of the highlights of the places we visited were this Kawai Kanjiro's house museum. It used to be the home of famous potter and nowdays it can be visited. There are his work showcased but also his collection of furniture and everything. For me the atmosphere and environment he lived and worked in was so harmonious and so so Japanese. It was something I haven't seen here yet so strongly.  






Beautiful kimonos in a special exhibition, where taking photos was not allowed - so I only managed to get this one beautiful detail.
 
The other highlight was to have a tea ceremony with Shihos family in Shokado garden. After that we had so good temaki sushi at their house. Thank you for such a great day!

Tigers, tiles and temples

After my parents moved to an other hotel lockated next to the Zoo we naturally went to have a look. The animals were great! The tigers were rolling around and gorillas going up and down. The elephant were a bit sad but maybe he was just a gray day. The zoo also had nice small amusement park with a wheel and small train. I'll show pictures of that later.

Our favourite cafe restaurant Sarasa. It is almost next to Funaoka onsen, a great bath house here in Kyoto. This restaurant place used to be a public bath too (80 years ago) with strong tiling and atmosphere and now as a cafe they kept the original tiles and structures. The people working there are laid back and the place is actually very cozy. The blueberry lassi and mango ginger ale are so good! This was the first (and again the last) place we ate with my parents.
  



There were also beautiful light up in Chion-in temple and garden. It was a bit cold or I didn't wear enought but we were so frozen after taking the long walks around the gardens.

Busy with parents

Having my parents in Japan.

After getting back from Taiwan my parents were already waiting for me here in Kyoto - so the sightseeing started right away :)

First days we spent in Ninna-ji, Ryoan-ji, Kinkaku-ji and Daitoku-ji. So many gardens, temples, different textures and Japanese aesthetics. We biked to Ninna-ji but after my mother scared some girls and herself with her furious riding we decided to continue by bus. Next day we visited Ryoanjis stone garden and the golden pavillion. In Daitokuji we saw the first blum blossoms.