Surprisingly uncrowded Kiyomizu-dera Temple

　Kiyomizu-dera Temple or Arashiyama are the most popular tourist attractions in Kyoto for foreigners. At the beginning of April, the temples are crowded with tremendous crowds, but this year there were surprisingly few people. However, of course there were huge crowds at Ninenzaka and Yasaka Pagoda.
　What was empty was the stage of Kiyomizu. Normally, you have to wait quite a long time to get to the tip of the stage, but this week the cherry blossoms were at their best in many places, so the tourists seemed to have been spread out quite a bit.
　At Kiyomizu-dera you can see around 1,000 Someiyoshino and Yamazakura cherry trees. As they have started to fall around today, they may fall by the end of this week.
　The best seasonal viewing of cherry blossoms from now on is at Ninna-ji Temple and Ohara Sanzenin Temple. If you stagger the locations well, you can enjoy the cherry blossoms for almost a month in the Kyoto area.