Spring in Kyoto with mum

My mum visited us at the start of April this year. It was nice to see her and spend some time with her. We met her in Kyoto, after Sam and I got a little lost trying to find where the limousine bus would drop her off. Our first stop after dropping off our bags at the hotel was Kiyomizudera. The sakura trees were in full blossom in Kyoto compared to in Kobe. As the blossoms don't last very long, meant that there were many many people there to see the sakura. It was my first time seeing them and they were everywhere and so pretty! It's quite a different scene visiting Kyoto in Spring and Autumn and it's hard to say which I prefer. Hmm...

Flowers of the most common type of sakura.

Elderly man painting

Next we visited a little shop called En we were told a little about the history of tea ceremony and watched a lady prepare the tea. We also got to try whisking up our own matcha. Mine didn't foam. =(

On our walk from Kiyomizudera to En we passed my Maruyama park and decided to have a walkthrough on the way back. There were many stalls set up around the place with food such as takoyaki, yakisoba, okonomiyaka, mochi and candied fruit. Below the trees were many people having hanami (flower viewing) parties. The park gets lit up at night time as well. A gigantic 40-foot weeping sakura tree, over 80 years old is another of the main attractions of this park.

The big ol' tree. It was painstakingly difficult to get a photo with no one in it..