Atago Lanterns

Today Laurel and I headed into Kyoto to meet with Ian, Eric, and Ash to discuss the upcoming orientation with the new JETs. It was basically a nice excuse to get out of the office for the afternoon. I am not giving a presentation but am merely there simply to meet the new CIR and offer her what little advice I can.

After the meeting we decided to grab some Mos Burger before heading back to Kameoka which has a disappointing lack of restaurants.

On our way we got a text from Dara asking if we wanted to go to the Atago Lantern Festival in Saga-Arashiyama this evening. We decided to go, for a variety of reasons, and so we stuck around Kyoto until Dara got off work. We were supposed to meet her at the Daimaru, but there were 2 buildings with the name Daimaru so we got lost. Then when we tried to go to the right Daimaru, we went the wrong direction and got more lost. Finally Finally Finally we met up with Dara and got on the train heading to Saga.



It is the end of Obon, the season when the spirits of the ancestors visit their homes and then the Japanese show them the door by lighting mountains on fire or creating lighted paths out of lanterns.







The Atago Lantern Festival is special because the citizens of the small section of Saga Arashiyama called Atago decorate the lanterns themselves. They are really unique and quite beautiful. It would have been a lot more fun if I hadn't been exhausted from the day of getting lost wandering around Kyoto.

After I finally got home, The Boy came over to hang out for a bit til we called it a night.