yawata & ikeda

Yesterday, Satoshi had the day off and since the weather was forecasted to be sunny, I decided we were going to check out more sakura.

One of my friends on Flickr had taken photos from Yawata and I was interested in checking this place out.

You see, along the bank between the Kizu River and Uji River are 250 cherry trees, stretched across 1.4 kilometers (about 0.8 miles).

Beautiful and amazing to see. The best part is there is no admission fee!

I packed us a bento (tamagoyaki, goma-ae, tsukemono, tsukudani + some musubi and muffin) and we headed to Yawata.

It is about an hour from Osaka to Yawata which is in Kyoto prefecture. Did you know that Satoshi had never been here and he grew up in Kyoto??

It was amazing to see so many trees and they were all in bloom. The wind was quite strong so at many times the petals were flying.

In Japanese, they call this "sakura fubuki" (cherry petal storm).

After our early lunch, we took the Otokoyama cable car up Mt Otoko and checked out the Iwashimizu-hachimangu as well as the look out area.

There is also a memorial for Thomas Edison. Apparently, he used a piece of bamboo from this area to create his light bulb.

We then took the Seseragi trail down the mountain. This was quite scary. Just 700 meters (about 0.43 miles) down a steep, leaf-laden path, I'm glad I didn't slip (as I'm famous for doing...)

After coming down the mountain, there were several temples we checked out as well as this Sakura Kinrin Koen. A large park with many cherry trees, they even had a little zoo for kids (and adults) to check out.

I was amazed that these weeping cherries were right next to a fishing spot.

After checking out this park, we walked to the Shokado Gardens.

They boasted a beautiful weeping cherry, which they sort of did have, but there were more varieties of tsubaki (camellia) that made the 400 yen admission worth it.

The bus system is a little spotty, so we walked back to the station (almost 2 kilometers, about 1.2 miles) and were hungry, so we stopped in for something sweet.

Yawata Hashiriimochi is a famous sweet in this area. Originally from Otsu (in Shiga prefecture), this sweet was created to look like a sword, in 1764. Then in 1910, this sweet was brought to Kyoto and was sold in Yawata ever since.

We had the hanami set with matcha, 570 yen (about US$5.70). This came with 1 hashiriimochi, 1 sakura mochi & your choice of drink.

After all that walking this really hit the spot.

Even though our feet were tired and we saw a lot of sakura, we decided to see more (because the days are limited to see them).

We took the train back to our area, and went to Ikeda.

Every year, Satsukiyama lights up their cherry blossoms and we got to see them on the last day of the event.

A very long day, but we saw a lot, we walked a lot and got to see a lots of beautiful sakura.

I have uploaded several videos but want to share this one with you. It was taken while we were at Yawata Sewaritei, the wind was quite strong and we were in a "sakura fubuki" (cherry petal storm).

Yawata Hashiriimochi
19 Yawata Takabo
Yawata, Kyoto
Phone: 0120.75.0154
Open: 8:00-18:00