a sign for the end of a semester

yeah... the first semester has gone by again. I didn't feel much of having semesters this year since I'm not taking that many courses to feel the burden of course workloads nor looking forward to summer break that much. Working on research only doesn't really give us a real summer break or anything anyways. But well, it is a tradition to have a gathering with people from your seminar group (i.e. with students under the same supervisors or with those taking the same course). This time (7/14) my professor took us to a restaurant called 'Kabocha no tane' (root of the pumpkin?) in Gion area right on the start of 'Yoi Yama', the night event of Japan's famous Gion Festival that takes place around this time of every year in Kyoto. We ordered their recommended 'Unagi (eel)' and 'Kyo Banzai (Kyoto traditional)' courses. When the courses were over, we didn't have any choices but leaving the place.

It was only 8-ish when we left. I was pretty surprised since it was pretty early for a nomikai to end. So a few of us decided to stroll around over to see the 'Yoi Yama' celebration in Shijo area. I didn't intend to join the event this year since I went 2 times already last year, even wearing a yukata to get the Japanese feel! ;-) This year, we just kinda walked around and over karasuma street for a bit and decided to head back since we parked our bikes by kamo river. That was quite a walk for us already.

On the walk back, we chose to go through back streets instead of Shijyo main road just to see the differences. We strolled thru the market, known as the backbone of Kyoto because it sells lots of Kyoto traditional food like tofu and tsukemono. I never can remember what it is called! Only a handful number of stores were open at that time, so it didn't take us that long to get back to Shijyo area.

We walked by Tenmangu shrine on the way back, so we made a brief stop there. This reminded me of Gion Matsuri last year. That time I went with Jill, just two of us. Then after a long walk in the festival, we found this shrine and went in to relax for a bit. This year, I also simply did the same thing! Tenmangu Shrine is a famous shrine with god of education. There are branches nationwide. I'm not so sure which one is the main one, osaka or kyoto? A lot of students go to these shrines to pray for education good luck though. Maybe if I suffer a lot from my study, I might do the same thing! =P

Last picture of the day ...

has anyone seen Mr.KFC in Yukata before?!?!