🌸 Sakura-viewing in Kyoto (pt. 1!)
Yes! I was back in Sakura Land 🌸 This time with my parents, as a celebration of their wedding anniversary :) The flowers bloomed early this year and we were lucky to catch them in full glory when we arrived in Kyoto on 2 April, but by the time we travelled up to Tokyo for the 2nd half of our 2-week trip, the petals had fallen with fresh greens starting to sprout. Stayed tuned, though, for my tips on sakura-chasing to make your own trip a fruitful one ;)
Our 1st stop--Haradani-en. I chanced upon dreamy pictures of this place on Instagram while I was doing up our itinerary, and decided that we had to go check it out for ourselves. It’s nicknamed a “Sakura Paradise”, and rightfully so:
Even without the bokeh and glowy effects on Insta, this was literally a cherry blossom-filled ‘secret garden’ kind of place. The atmosphere was magical ❀
At full bloom, the many weeping cherry blossom (枝垂れ桜) trees painted the background a beautiful shade of pink, while the other colours of spring coloured the foreground. There were seats scattered around the garden, and an area near a food stall (bottom left above) saw many visitors gathering for bento lunches. You could even reserve a special in-house bento lunch for dining in a hut in the garden (top).
Being a private garden slightly out of town, it was not extremely crowded and visitors looked to be mainly Japanese with the occasional few foreigners like us, who came in search of this gem during the limited period it was open to the public. I loved that you could easily take photos without anybody in the scene, at least before lunch time--not sure about the crowd in the afternoon, though.
Haradani-en was hands down my favourite part of the trip and I highly recommend it to anyone, even though it might not be the most convenient to get to. You have to see this before the rest of the tourist population discovers it!
Lunch and Philosopher’s Path
We took a taxi to the Nanzen-ji (南禅寺) area for lunch. As we weren’t foodies, we just walked in to a restaurant along the road that looked nice, and ended up at Yachiyo (八千代) which served the tofu cuisine (湯豆腐) that the area was known for. The restaurant happens to be part of a Ryokan if you fancy staying there!
We had an alfresco seat outdoors next to the restaurant’s Japanese garden since the weather was fine, and ordered their tofu set meals that came with tempura vegetables and other small side dishes. We were served a large pot of boiled silken tofu for sharing, and each ate the tofu with seasonings/toppings according to our own preferences. As you can see, I was really greedy and had mine with soy sauce, bonito flakes, seaweed and spring onions...basically the full package (minus wasabi), haha :D
After lunch, we took a stroll along the famous Philosopher’s Path. At a leisurely pace which allowed us to take lots of photos, we finished the walk in about half an hour. Along the way, we were joined by a lot more tourist (as compared to Haradani-en) who were also there to admire the picturesque cherry blossom-lined path.
Kyoto’s Philosopher’s Path actually reminds me of Tokyo’s Meguro River, albeit a tad less crowded and featuring more greenery (as seen above). Both have their own charms and it’s worth visiting both if you get the chance!
Access: by car or taxi
Location: Google Maps
Notes:
Admission fees and dates the garden is open to the public varies--please check the website (Japanese only) or Google for English information around Spring
Tripods, pets, food from outside, wedding photoshoots are prohibited
Yachiyo
Location: Google Maps
Philosopher’s Path
Access: by car or taxi
Location:
You can choose to start from the southern end near Kumano Nyakuōji-jinja (熊野若王子神社) or the north side near Higashiyama Jisho-ji (東山慈照寺)
Budget at least 20 minutes for the walk (more if you walk slow or would like to stop for photos/coffee at the cafes along the way)
