Before we went to see Miyako Odori yesterday, we soldiered up Hanamikoji Street towards the large Yasaka Shrine. Hanamikoji Street is the main drag through Gion, Kyoto’s historic geisha district. Its long covered walk and hanging paper lanterns advertise shop after shop. Foreign fascination with geishas means it is the most visited spot in Kyoto. Doing the bump and slip through the crowds is similar to crossing the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, or the Ponte di Rialto in Venice; you wonder why you’re doing it while you’re doing it, but when you’re done you’re glad you did it if for no other reason than you’ll never do it again.
Hanamikoji dead-ends at the steps leading to the Yasaki Shrine.
Entering the huge gate I expected the Shinto equivalent of fireworks. What I got was circus-type food stalls.
Through the food stalls there was a large courtyard where the Gion-Matsuri festival, for which the shrine is renowned, has a stage. During the festival in July, floats that are paraded through the streets as they are in Fukuoka, and like Fukuoka, the floats commemorate Shinto priests ridding the city of the plague.
