Green tour Kyoto | travel information in JAPAN » Blog Archive » Exploring the origin of Kamo River

I have been living in Kyoto for 12 years, but there are still some places where I’ve never been to yet.
Kumogahata, very north part of Kyoto City, is one of them and from where the Kamo River, loved by Kyoto peoples’, comes from.
I joined the interested tour named “Kumogahata Green Tourism” yesterday with Akiko and my son. It was very east to get there because the shuttle bus picked us at subway Kitaoji Station. The bus was going along the Kamo River. The view from the window was really beautiful.

After just 20 minutes, we arrived at Kumogahata area. The first event of yesterday’s tour was to listen to the priest’s talk of Shimyo-in Temple, located on Mt. Iwaya in Kumogahata. This temple was founded by great priest, Kukai in the 9th century to protect the old capital, Kyoto from plague and evil sprits. It was the sacred place to train in the Buddhism, therefore photography is prohibited at the area from Sanmon, the mountain gate.
The priest told us that it’s very important to keep clean this mountain and the origin of Kamo River, and appreciate nature. The strong wind blew and the maple waved with a big sound during his talk. It sounded some scary and mysterious. I felt as if mononoke was there.
Actually Hayao Miyazaki, the director of Studio Ghibli, came to this temple before he made the film, “Princess Mononoke”.

After leaving the temple, we had a traditional lunch along the river. It was delicious.

Akiko and I decided to come to Kumogahata again for next tour of Green Tour Kyoto on October. Probably we will add hiking on the mountain next to Shimyo-in Temple. We’d like to tell you about next hiking event soon!!

href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/48801205@N05/7998603454/” title=”IMG_1221″ rel=””>