Dragon Festival at Kiyomizy-dera

I've now been to Kiyomizu-dera three times. It's not really that exciting but it really can't be left off any list of "Things to see while in Kyoto." So we went. This time I decided to spice it up by making sure that we were there for the Dragon Festival. This is my story and I'm sticking to it! (Although the truth might be that I had no idea when or what this was and just got lucky.) The dragon came by in a procession that also included guys dressed up as warriors, some monks, and musicians, two of whom were playing conch shells like trumpets to announce the dragon's approach- totally awesome. The dragon made its way to each of the smaller shrines within the temple and paid its respects (or at least that's what it looked like to me. Wikipedia failed me when it came to details.) It was a scary looking dragon but as far as I know it didn't eat anyone but we left early so it's hard to say. Enjoy the pictures!

The procession goes by.



The dragon.






It stopped at each shrine within the temple. Here it is at the shrine by the love rocks.






On its way to the next shrine.