Hello!
We are in Kyoto! We were up early and on the ferry back to the mainland yesterday, grabbing a coffee on the way. After a short 10 minute journey we managed to get on the train to Osaka and then switched to continue to Kyoto. All in all it took about 3 hours so wasn't so bad. We then figured out how to use the 'subway' to get to our hotel and managed to find it on our first attempt, tucked down a little alleyway off the main road on one of the more central areas of Kyoto, Gion. The Kyoto Inn Gion looked much better in real life than in the pictures we had seen previously and after checking in with the loveliest staff and seeing our beautiful room topped with a Japanese umbrella in the corner, we were glad to be stopping here for 2 nights!
We headed straight out with our maps to find 'Fushimi Inari-Taisha' - the best site in Japan apparently! We jumped on a bus and then took a train to the south of Kyoto. The hustle and bustle of tourists as soon as we got off the train told us we had made it to the right place. We walked through some food stalls before entering, Tom having a steak on a stick with corn and Tara opting for chicken on a stick! On entering the first bright orange gate of many we were to see, Tara had a photo with some girls dressed as geishas - it seemed to be the thing to do when you're visiting here, there were even westerners dressed up in the traditional dress including the uncomfortable looking wooden stilted sandals. We passed on the dressing up and headed through the first tunnel of bright orange gates just like the one we had seen on Miyajama island. This place was basically a mountain which you climbed by walking through thousands and thousands of these gates above you. We'd never seen a forest like it! There were hundreds of shrines along the way and stone foxes staring at you as you got higher. After quite a long walk up quite a few steps, we thought we must have reached the top, only to see a map which informed us that actually we'd only just begun! Tara was determined to get to the top today after yesterday's failure so we didn't hesitate and continued up the steps. Probably around an hour later, puffing and panting and both sweating from our heads to our toes we reached the peak and didn't even realise! There was a huge shrine which looked just like all the others we had seen on the way up so walked straight past it and only realised it must have been the top when we were halfway down a long flight of stairs to the bottom! We enjoyed our hike anyway and reached the bottom before getting back on the train the Gion.
We got off the bus a couple of stops early to explore the streets around us. We first headed to Gion Corner where we bought tickets to see a traditional Japanese show including a geisha dance, a comedy act and a puppet show! Although it was all in Japanese it was a fun experience! Afterwards we went in search of some dinner and started to feel like we were back in China, lots of places seemed to be shut or very overpriced and we couldn't find anywhere that we actually wanted to eat that wasn't western! Eventually we went in a small Japanese restaurant that a lady was advertising from the street tucked away down a small alleyway. Our meal was lovely, both enjoying chicken teriyaki with rice and miso soup.
After our dinner we walked back to the hotel as it was getting late and chilled in our room. We watched a Love Island before going to bed.
This morning, Friday, we have enjoyed a lovely breakfast after a great nights sleep in a very comfy bed. So much better then sleeping on the floor!!
Today we are heading to the bamboo forest first before exploring some more of Kyoto.
Bye for now,
T&T x