kyoto

Today is Children's Day. When I was growing up it was called Boy's Day, but I guess with the times of equality this and that, it is now called Children's Day.

One thing you will see during this holiday is koi nobori (flying carp). As I understand it, each fish represents a male in the family and flies in hopes of the male to grow and flourish, just as the carp grows and swims along the rivers.

We went to Kyoto today to visit Satoshi's parents and grandma. Along the way to visit his parents, we went to the shokubutsuen (botanical garden), they had differenty types of shakuyaku (a type of peony),

shakunage (a type of rhododendron)

and other unusual flowers.

On our way to visit Satoshi's grandma, we came upon a special showing of tsutsuji (azaleas) at the Josuijo (waterworks). This place usually isn't open to the public, so it was a great opportunity to see inside the waterworks and to catch a glimpse of their tsutsuji. It was amazing! The whole hillside was filled with tsutsuji bushes.

There were many people there, but it was still worth seeing.

It was a great day, the weather has warmed up quite a bit over the past couple of days. Plus, we were able to visit with Satoshi's parents and grandma.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend.