Nijou Castle and Tanabata
Got back from Nara and hopped on a bus to Nijou castle instead of going back to the hostel. There was supposed to be some Tanabata celebrations around various points in town so we trekked off to find them on our last night.
Got to the castle not really knowing WHAT was going on just that there was SOMETHING going on. Turns out they opened the castle grounds up after hours for free and had some nice lights up and there were some booths and music performances as well.
Wandered around the castle grounds for a wee bit. It was a little dull, since there wasn't too much to see and the main buildings were still closed off. We had heard that there was supposed to be a special light display near the river for Tanabata, so we asked a castle volunteer and it turned out it was just across the street.
The stream was turned into a sort of special decorated walkway for Tanabata, with lights and decorations and special art displays.
Good timing because we got there JUST as it started. They released hundreds of these glowing light balls into the river.
Walked quite a way up the river, past many decorated trees and bamboo displays, past artwork and sculpture displays, more light displays until we got to the light tunnel. This is what we'd been looking for since coming to Kyoto.
I took a couple short videos becasue photos really weren't doing the whole experience any justice at all.
Click to viewThis is the walkway along the stream with the bamboo decorations and light up balls.
After walking through the light tunnel most people left the riverside but we kept on walking further, they had a "Forest of Fireflies" set up with lights in the trees blinking on an off to look like fireflies and some more light displays.
After everything it was quite the long walk, but definitely worth it.
So we'd conquered more than a mile at Fushimi Inari, Nara and Todaiji and another mile of Tanabata lights all in a single day.
We hopped the bus back to the station, hit up the conbini on the way home and finally made it back to the hostel for sweet delicious showering and bed.