Lantern Road
January 02, 2009
A couple weeks ago, I visited Arashiyama again with You-san after the last day of Japanese school. I wanted to visit the hanatouro, or flower lantern road. It’s an annual event where thousands of lanterns are placed in a different location everywhere and lit up at night.
The city of Kyoto started this event in 2003 to promote tourism in March when Kyoto had much less visitors than the city expected. “Hanatouro” or “Hanatoro” literally means “Flower and light road”. They place thousands of lanterns along selected paths in Higashiyama from Sanjo to Gojo. They also exhibit flower arrangements in Maruyama-koen park. Temples and a shrine in this area illuminates their buildings and trees. The period of the event may vary each year, but it was from 12th to 21st, March in 2004.
[My Kind of Kyoto]
I didn’t know that this event changes venue every year – on the official hanatouro website, the next venue for 2009 is up: Higashiyama, from March 13 to 22.
Thankfully there weren’t too many people when we went. It was nice to take a stroll through the crisp winter air of Kyoto but the lanterns weren’t all that spectacular. For one thing, they’re all electric lights – while safer, they really don’t have the appeal of real lanterns. The lantern lit path was a much shorter than I had thought. Walking through the bamboo grove by lantern light was great but walking past coffee shops and souvenir stores wasn’t.
Still, it was something to do. After living here for several years – one must find things to do!
