This Saturday was supposedly 'Hina Matsuri' (Doll's day or Girl's day). So we went to a couple of shrines, expecting to see little girls in brightly colored kimono, but ... nope. Didn't see any. Ok, saw a couple of kids running around, but none in Kimono. Perhaps this celebration is mostly done at home, or perhaps we slept in too late and missed the festivities. Oh well. Michael and I still had a good day walking around Kyoto.
Before hitting the shrines, we stopped at a rotating sushi restaurant that Michael has had his eye on. I didn't really feel like eating sushi, but we went anyway, and I was glad, cos there were cute Hello Kitty things to eat! This style of sushi is called 'Inari Sushi'. It's a sweet tofu skin wrapped around rice.
After lunch, we took our full bellies to the Shimogamo Shrine (famous for being in The Tale of Genji), where there was a display of dolls in traditional royal kimono. Also saw a couple of dolls in straw baskets bobbing on the shallow river that runs through the shrine's grounds. These dolls represent floating away disease and bad luck. But, no kids were floating the dolls nor did I see where to buy the dolls so I could float away any bad luck.
Pretty Views at Shimogamo Shrine:
Must be a good time and place for a wedding, as there were 2 weddings going on at the shrine! I took a sneaky photo.
We took a bus to another shrine, wanting to see people there supposedly dressed up in the royal kimonos like the doll stand in the first photo. But, umm we couldn't find the shrine, and then we thought we found it, but there was a huge stone wall that we walked around and around and couldn't find the entrance! Then, we saw another place that looked like it was maybe the shrine, but by that time it was nearly 4pm and the dress-ups were supposed to finish at 4. So we just walked back to Kyoto Station! Ah well, it was a nice walk.
Lastly, we went to the huge department store (Isetan) in Kyoto Station, to buy some chocolates for my tea ceremony teacher (she's invited us for dinner) and for Michael's mum's birthday. The confectionary range turns me into a wide-eyed drooling thing. So, I had to buy a little cute something for myself to eat at home. 
Michael can withstand the temptations of confectionary much better than me.
