Filmed over a week in Kyoto and its surrounding areas. I've been to Kyoto many times before and always wanted to capture the beauty of its atmosphere. The place has an mysterious feeling, with ancient temples and tranquil forests.
Scenes include the Golden Pavilion Temple, Fushimi Inari, Kiyomizu Temple, Gion, Ryoanji, Todaiji, and Arashiyama. We also made trips out to nearby Osaka, Nara, and Koyasan. Especially in the winter, the snow was beautiful in the Mount Koya world-heritage.
Gion Matsuri Festival is one of the three Japanese top festival.
It has been held in Kyoto since Heian era, when bad disease killed a lot of people.
The festival started for people to pray to God for stopping it. It is a summer festival from July 1st to 31st. On July 17th, Yamahoko, grand historical floats, parade around streets and entertain many tourists from inside and outside Japan.
KYOTO. Especially, the cherry blossoms in spring and the colored leaves in autumn are highly recommended.
The colored leaves in Kyoto in autumn are just spectacular!
The high season for autumn leaves is roughly between the mid-November to the beginning of December.
The Kitano Tenmangu Shrine is a shrine built in the northwest section of Kyoto over 1000 years ago. The shrine was built during 947AD by the emperor of the time in honor of Sugawara no Michizane, a scholar and politician who represented the middle Heian period (794 AD – 1185 AD), as well as for the peace of the nation. Ever since, the imperial family, nobles, samurais and commoners alike all visit the shrine to worship.
The Kitano Tenmangu Shrine is the very first shrine in Japanese history where an actual person was enshrined as a deity.