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No need to shove Heian Shrine into a crowded daytime itinerary while this breathtaking event is going on<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n When visiting Kyoto<\/strong>, many travelers hope to experience moments of unhurried tranquility and timeless beauty at the city\u2019s temples and shrines. \u201cTimeless\u201d doesn\u2019t mean \u201copen at any time,\u201d though. Many of Kyoto\u2019s most popular sightseeing attractions are only open during the day, which can lead to situations where you\u2019re forced to create a packed daylight-hours itinerary or skip some sites altogether.<\/p>\n However, if you\u2019re headed to Kyoto this spring, you might be able to move Heian Shrine<\/strong> out of your pre-sundown plans, since it\u2019ll be open after dark.<\/p>\n Well, the sky will be dark. Heian Shrine itself won\u2019t be though, because at the beginning of April it\u2019ll be holding its annual Sakura Otoyo<\/strong> light-up event. Sakura, as you probably already know, is the Japanese word for cherry blossoms<\/strong>, which should be in bloom at this time, and so for five nights, from April 1 to 5, the shrine will be open later than normal and the Otenmon gate, Daigokuden hall, and Minami and Higashi Shinen (south and east gardens) will be lit up to provide an even greater contrast between the soft pink of the sakura\u2019s petals and the night sky<\/strong>.<\/p>\n As for the Otoyo part of the name, yo<\/em> means \u201cnight,\u201d and oto<\/em> means \u201csound,\u201d referring to the live musical performances<\/strong> that will take place near the Higashi Shinen area\u2019s pond. This year\u2019s lineup includes a variety of contemporary instrumental artists, vocalist Aoi Teshima, and acapella quartet Real Traum.<\/p>\n Admission to the light-up event, which lasts from 6:15 to 9 p.m.<\/strong>, is 1,500 yen (US$9.70) for prepurchase or 2,000 yen at the gate. For those also wishing to watch the musical performances from the standing area near the pond, the admission prices instead are 3,000\/4,000 yen, though given the open-air nature of the venue, odds are you\u2019ll be able to hear the music even as you stroll around the other parts of the shrine.<\/p>\n Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased via the Sakura Otoyo website here.<\/p>\n Source: PR Times<\/a>, Sakura Otoyo official website<\/a><\/em> No need to shove Heian Shrine into a crowded daytime itinerary while this breathtaking event is going on. When visiting Kyoto, many travelers hope to experience moments of unhurried tranquility…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/hj-2.jpg?w=640\")
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\nTop image: PR Times<\/em>
\nInsert images: PR Times, Sakura Otoyo official website<\/em>
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