Kyoto Gion Matsuri

Back to update with a late post ...

17 July 海の日 also known as Sea / Ocean day, is a holiday in Japan. That's to say, school holiday! Thus, trip to Kyoto to visit one of the main festival in Japan, Gion Matsuri -祇園祭, the festival of Yasaka Shrine...

Since it is one of the famous festival in Japan, the crowd is really an eye opening! Well, once you get off the train, follow the crowd, and this is how it looks like when you get out of the exit.

everyone just there waiting till the floats arrive ...

decided to walk to another place to view the parade, since the corner area is really pack with people, and well, all I can say is that Japanese people really are considerate people. They won't try to squeeze you to get to the front, plus they do follow some 'rules' like leaving a gap between the walk way for others to walk by to go to another place...

so glad that the streets area seem like packed with people, as it's much easier to view the parade here.

Due to the hot weather and the crowd, we decided to explore another place that is less crowded...

So peaceful here without the crowd ..

this river, Kamogawa, is not a bad place to choose to relax yourself.

time to just relax and enjoy the view, and you can also just relax your feet in the water to cool yourself ...

Well, when you happen to find pikachu with ash's hat ...

unknowingly, we walked back to another part of the city and the parade is still on-going... so many hats,  and hand fan are really popular with Japanese!

the crowd is just there ..

Before going back to Osaka, went to a department store to just chill and to our surprise, we follow a stamping booth for this festival..

Well, since we started at the top floor, thus the paper used was a used receipt. hahah! Actually you are supposed to start from Level 1, where the first booth is located to get the paper to stamp each individual stamp at different floor. 

Overall, it's quite a new experience here since you won't find any roughy people plus there one or two stops that they give out water to the people in case anyone get thirsty. The whole event is from day to night, but decided to give the night one a missed, since the day before we all had a late night while the next day is school day ...

Anyway, I can't wait for the next trip!