Jidai Matsuri Parade



On the 22nd of October it was Jidai Matsuri which is the second biggest festival in Kyoto after Gion Matsuri. It is a parade from the Imperial Palace to Heian Jingu. The Parade consists of people dressed up in costumes from different periods in Japan`s history. Although the main parade is beautiful and an interesting insight into Japanese history I personally prefer the part before the parade, the build up to the main event. I went to the Imperial Palace and half nine and saw all the participants arriving in their costumes. It all felt much more relaxed and less formal. Because of this there were hardly any other tourists and I was able to get up close.

 

 

Walking along side the morning traffic 



Even the 'Emperor' has to wait at the zebra crossing



Entering the Imperial Palace



Lunch time!



Even samurai need help tying their shoe laces!



The start of the official parade

That Friday Feeling

Every Friday I come home from school and then listen to Radio 1. This is my Friday feeling, listening to good tunes to set me up for the weekend ahead. So I have decided that from now on I will post one of my favourite songs of the moment every Friday. This week it is Counting Stars by OneRepublic. Enjoy!

Tokyo Sky Tree

The recent addition to Tokyo`s skyline is of course the Sky Tree which opened last year. Although we didn`t actually go up it, we did stay at The Gate Hotel in Asakusa which had great views of the Sky Tree.  At night it is illuminated and there are two illumination patterns which alternate daily. One is Iki (chic and stylish) and the other is Miyabi (elegance and refinement.) The one I saw was Miyabi which is purple, the other design is blue.

The Sky Tree at night which was very hard to photograph since we were inside and there were lots of reflections

Looking over to Shinjuku

Me and The Sky Tree

The Gate Hotel`s terrace

Back in the blogosphere

Ok so I realise that I have abandoned my blog for over one month, oops! However it isn`t because I have been lazy, it`s due to a chain of events which I guess you could just call excuses. To start off with I was ill, then I went to Tokyo and had a super busy schedule, the my mum came to visit, then I started a new school term and then on top of it all my laptop decided to have a holiday and stop working. Anyway, all is fine now and I have lots of interesting stuff to post about including all the fun things I got up to in Tokyo! I have been before but can`t actually remember it because I was very young, so in a way this felt like my first time to go to Tokyo so I was super excited. We all know that Tokyo is a buzzing metropolis where anything is possible, but to be there and to experience it for yourself is truly wonderful.

The very first photo I took when I arrived in Tokyo