Tradition

Jidai Matsuri, or Festival of the Ages, Kyoto, Japan 10.23.2011.

This was our first full free day in Japan, which we had scheduled on purpose towards the end of our trip, since most of the rest of it had been guided tours. We were lucky in that the Matsuri had been postponed from the day before due to the weather, as we had gone to Hiroshima that day.

We met a man while waiting for the subway who only spoke Japanese, but my dad knew enough to be able to communicate to him where we were trying to go. He was headed there, too, so got us to the right station. Once we reached the Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds (the procession goes from there to Heian Jingu) we were lucky enough to see the tail end of the practice. This gentleman then took us where we thought was out of our way and we didn't know why...but where he took us was where the partcipants were gathering waiting for the actual parade to begin. So we were able to get really close and see firsthand the beautiful costumes and things. Apparently those in the know go there for great close up shots and stuff.