NISHIYAMA RYOKAN Established in 1953

The Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Ages ) was held on 22nd of October. The festival held annually on the same date. It is one of Kyoto's renowned three great festivals, with the other two are the Aoi Matsuri, held annually on May 15, and the Gion Matsuri, which is held annually from 17 to July 24. It is basically a historical costume parade, where people dress up in traditional clothes fromdifferent period. They close the streets about 4.5km in central part of the city and the parade start from the imperial palace to the Heian Jingu Shrine. The parade represents 7 different periods. Which are: -Meiji Restoration period -Edo period-Azuchi -Momoyama period -Muromachi -Yoshino period -Kamakura period -Fujiwara period -Enryaku period The whole length of the parade reach up to 2km. These are the photos we took from Oike street.

Last night, we had Koto concert at the Lobby. All of us enjoyed elegant Koto music at beautiful Autumn night. There will be another concerts coming up very soon. The schedule of concerts are: October 30th November 6th, 20th, 27th It is free of charge and open to anyone. Please bring your friends and enjoy the night.

Konnichiwa ^^ Greetings to all our readers, I started working at the reception from last September. From now on I am going to update our English blog. (Hope I can do that freuently ^^;) There is a very strong Typhoon approaching to the main island of Japan. Usually few weak ones come before one strong Typhoon, but there were none of them approached to Japan in last couple months, so instead of that they are going to come in all at once... According to the news, if the Typhoon approach without decrease its power, total amount of rain it will produce will be same as what Japan gets in half year. It is said to hit the main island in couple days so hope it loses its power before that... Event Announcement: For those guests staying at 16th October, there will be Koto (Japanese harp) concert at the lobby from 19:30~20:00. It will be free charge and anyone is welcome (even if you are not staying at ours) so come and listen!

Hello^^ Finally, the rainy season is over! That means summer is almost over too... especially this year, it feels like even shorter than usual. The next big event in summer in Japan is called Obon (the Bon festival), which is held from August 13th to 16th. (in some places until 15th.) It is considered that the ancestors' spirits return to our world. With lots of offerings, we welcome our ancestors on Aug.13th, and see them off on Aug.16th. The Bon festival in Kyoto is somewhat different from those in the other areas. They set fire on those huge 5 Kanji letters (Chinese characters) that are placed on the surface of 5 montains in Kyoto city as a guide for the spirits to safely find their way back. The festival starts at 8:00pm. And this is how it looks like from the rooftop of Nishiyama Ryokan. From our rooftop, we can see 3 letters which are 「大」　「舟」　「法」 through those tall buildings that are constructed in recent years. We do hope that we will always be able to see this magnificent e...

Hello! How are you doing? Have you seen girls walking around in Yukata in Kyoto city? Usually, people wear Yukata (one-layer-Kimono for summer season) on a special occasion like Matsuri (festivals). But for some reason, it's not so unusual to see thses girls wearing Yukata as everyday clothes here in Kyoto. Maybe that's because the traditional part of the city is still preserved in this modern day. Well, speaking of Yukata... Our Yukata collection at Nishiyama Ryokan is now on sale for both of men and women! Isn't this pretty!? How about strolling around the city in Yukata? Also Yukata would be a wonderful gift for your family and friends^^ Come see our collection at Nishiyama Ryokan!!!

Tanabata (also called "the star festival") is held on July 7th. It is the only day a year that the star Altair crosses the Milky way to meet the star Vega. On this day, people write their wishes on strips of paper and hang them from bamboo tree. It is believed that those wishes come true on Tanabata. We had our guests make wishes...and here is one of them!!! written by two pretty sisters from the U.S. Thanks to our guests, we had more wishes on the bamboo tree. I hope all the wishes come true.....

Speaking of summer, I hear about ghost stuff more often. For example, horror programs on TV or at some places a haunted house is built only during summer time. The reason is that horror stuffs make you frighten and cool you down in hot summer. I don't know if this is only Japanese culture but needless to say Japanese horror movie is quite popular all over the world. There is one famous haunted house in Kyoto Studio Park Toei. If you are interested, why don't you go there to cool down?? I mean if you do like horror movie... http://www.eigamura30.com/english/index.html