Walking around Kyoto

I'm winding up our Japan trip from April 2015. One afternoon, Hector and I decide to walk around Kyoto near our apartment. On the map,we saw that the Imperial Palace grounds was not too far so off we set to explore. 

Note: Viewing the map, as always, seems straight forward but getting there is usually involves consulting the map frequently and asking for help. Luckily, the grounds has many entrances and boy is this place huge!! One would never know since their are lots of grass, tree area then the walkways are gravel which makes walking interesting. Even though it had rained recently, we saw lots of people gathered on blankets for a picnic. Even on a picnic, the Japanese people take their shoes off and neatly line them around the blanket.

Again, the grounds are huge!! It seemed like we just kept walking and walking. And suddenly we came across the area where the cherry trees were blossoming. 

I believe the palace was closed and we just spent our time walking and observing which is really a pretty great way to experience Japan.

And now for lots of pictures...