Kyoto

Night in Kyoto

Strolling the stone-paved alleys in Kyoto

Takako Sakamoto Dec 24, 2014 - 1 min read

<p>Rare view of Ninen-zaka (Ninen Slope) without crowds at night</p>

<p>Looking at the sunset over Mount Nishiyama from Shogun-zuka</p>

<p>I wonder if they are tourists trying out Maiko costumes? They don't look like the professional Maiko to me.</p>

<p>Paved back street of Kodaiji Temple. This area is very popular with tourists.</p>

<p>Ishibe Koji (Stone Fence Street). Entoku-in Temple demolished a part of its garden to create this street.</p>

<p>In Kyoto, there are many narrow alleys like this</p>

<p>Walking through Entokuin Temple's garden from the street called Nene-no-michi. Snow-viewing sliding screens (Yukimi Shoji) are seen through lattice windows.</p>

<p>When Kyoto City's street cars were decommissioned, stone pavements with tracks were recycled as pathways here</p>

These photos were taken when I went back to Kyoto, my hometown, in early April this year when cherry blossoms were beautiful.

Kyoto is in a basin surrounded by mountains from three sides and even in April when sun sets, the temperature drops and it becomes chilly. I climbed to mountaintop Shogun-zuka for the first time in many years, then went down to Gion in Higashiyama area and strolled on paved alleys there. Narrow alleys are called, 'Roji' in Japanese, but in Kyoto, it's called 'Ro-u-ji'. On the paved stones of 'Ro-u-ji', our two sets of footsteps echoed gently.

Night-time Tale of Three Cities 1. Night in Kyoto 2. Lights in the Port Town Kobe 3. Magnificent Night Views of Osaka

Takako Sakamoto @takako.sakamoto

I was born in and grew up in Tokushima prefecture, and have lived in many places since then: Nishinomiya, Kyoto, Nara, Mie, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Fukuoka and Fukui. I am currently living in Yokohama City. All the places I lived, all the places I visited, I have loved dearly. The histor...