"Gion Matsuri"

"If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving." -Doctrine & Covenants 136:28

Light the lanterns, friends!
Summer has arrived,
and so have the festivals!

Of course,
Japan parties all-year-round,
but summertime is the height of it all.
ヘ(^_^ヘ)(ノ^_^)ノ☆

There's just
SO MUCH CULTURE
everywhere you look.

And even though Japan
is slightly overrun with foreigners...

the Japanese stay true to their culture
every blessed year.

...For the most part, atleast.

Staying in a Japanese-style inn {a ryokan}
was a fantastic experience.

It really got us into the
"Japanese mood"
and prepped us for the festival.

The costumes were so outstanding to look at.

...Especially the miniature-sized ones.

The boy in blue is a kappa {turtle} demon.
The boy in green is a lilypad.

The parade lasted all morning.
The sun was hot,
the costumes heavy.
These kiddies deserved bucket-loads of ice cream.

Some of the floats
were so tall,
they had to have men
steady the swaying tops with ropes.

Young musicians sat in the floats
and played as the parade moved along,
filling the streets with traditional folk music.

Some of the floats
can weigh over 26,000 pounds
and need over 35 attendants to pull/push them.

Each float
was pulled down the street,
across the river {there's a bridge},
and onto the sacred grounds of Yasaka Shrine
to purify against pestilence and disasters for another year.

We crossed the river as well,
and spotted the Minami-za,
the Kabuki theater of Kyoto.

We also found the statue of Izumo no Okuni,
a woman who danced and sang in dry riverbeds
and developed the art of kabuki.

To escape the crowds,

we turned down the by-night-Geisha-street

and found the Kennin-ji,

the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto.

It was incredibly peaceful,

with its raked pebble gardens,

nightingale floorboards

and quiet atmosphere.

And at the end of the path,
we found two beautiful dragons
twisting magnificently on the ceiling
in an eternal black-and-white dance.

After eating a ton of festival food
{karage: fried chicken, kakikoori: snow cones, sushi, Godiva chocolates...}
we decided to dine at a little Italian restaurant
across the street from our ryokan.

We wanted to stay forever,
just eating the chef's handmade lasagna for the rest of eternity,
but the clock reminded us
we had to go home.

Kyoto is so gorgeous,
and so overflowing with culture,
if you're ever feeling whimsical,

come to Japan.

Let's have a sleepover... in Kyoto!

{Music via Kiyoshi Yoshida}