We were lucky to be in Kyoto during the time the annual Hanatouro Festival was happening in Arashiyama and although I had seen photos of the bamboo illuminated at night floating about the internet I had no idea that this only happened once a year during the festival so it was pretty good timing for us to be in town during the event.
There are two main areas of illumination for the festival the Togetsu Bridge and the Bamboo Forest, a special pathway illuminated with lanterns will guide you to through the town to each of the attractions (although we still got lost) and the shrines nearby are also open later to celebrate the occasion.
The first night we took a walk through the Bamboo Forest which was very beautiful, we walked quite a distance around it to without even realising and the event was finishing for the night by the time we had emerged from there so we thought we would come back the next night to see the illuminations at the bridge.
This is the mascot for the Togetsu Bridge who we fondly nicknamed Bridge-chan and I think he was my favourite mascot of them all, I wanted so badly to find this mascot that night and at the point where we had given up there he was right by the station, I was so happy! It was definitely worth braving the cold weather to see and the bamboo forest was just amazing I would love to go back and visit Arashiyama in the daylight as I'm sure it's just as beautiful.
What are your favourite festivals?
Love & Tofu
Cate
xoxo
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