The plan this morning was to head to the Fushimi Inari shrine to see the 10,000 torii gates just south of Kyoto. We got up at 6am hoping to beat the crowds to get some pics without bumping into people but along the way we went to the wrong subway station, got on the wrong train which missed our stop, then had to back track on another train. We probably used up an extra 45 min trying to get to Ryukokudai-mae-fukakusa Station. Fortunately we saw other tourists with the same problems as us so it definitely wasn’t my poor navigation skills.
Once leaving the subway station, we went one way while the other tourists went another. I noticed they walked a block and then recognized us from the train and then started following our lead. I intentionally took a few random turns to see if they were indeed following us and they were. Eventually we made it to the shrine. Here’s Joanna celebrating.
We got to the shrine at 8am and people were just starting to trickle in which was a relief.
One of the beliefs in Japanese culture is that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, your wish will come true. Along the wall were thousands of colorful paper cranes.
I read that Fushimi Inari is the most important out of several thousand shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. The first structure was built in 711 AD and the orange torii gates which are the most well known part of the shrine started around 1603 where people would donate money to make a gate if their wish came true to show gratitude.
When you first start the walk up the steps there are 2 foxes/foxen on either side. Foxes are thought to be Inari’s messengers so we saw quite a few statues around.
Again, super thankful we got here early because it gave us an opportunity to set up the tripod and get some decent pictures without getting in the way of other people.
I learned that the difference in size of the torii gates depends on how much money someone donates to have one made. The smaller ones are about $4,000 and the larger ones are up to $10,000. I would have thought they cost more.
We walked a bit and decided we wanted to conserve our energy for something else and not climb all the way to the top which takes between 2-3 hours. On the way back down I noticed an increasing traffic jam of visitors and tour groups.
It was only 9:30am so we decided to take the train to the opposite side of Kyoto to Arashiyama which is a nice nature-y part of town that’s famous for its bamboo forest. When I first came here in 2015, I was expecting the ability to walk through a thick forest of bamboo trees similar to what we experienced on the east side of Maui when we went 2 years ago.
Nope, it’s really just a walking path with tall grass fences on either side preventing you from really getting up close to the bamboo. Probably rightly so as some of the bamboo stalks had people’s initials carved into them which is dumb. It was pretty packed here too like at Fushimi Inari.
The walking path took us to the Katsura River where we stopped for an ice cream break (duh) and to snap a few pics because it was so scenic.
We skipped the monkey park since we’ve seen the snow monkeys in Nagano (blog post) and there were ill tempered monkeys in Yakushima. It’s just a bit of a hike uphill to go inside a woodden house to feed monkeys peanuts through a metal grated window (blog post).
I looked up if there were any food specialties in Kyoto and saw that tofu and pickled vegetables were things you needed to try here. I found a vegetarian restaurant that had both nearby.
Joanna got the somen dipping noodles and I got the tofu skin in a soy milk soup broth along with assorted side dishes. Saying this was the worst meal we’ve had here so far feels overly negative and mean considering pretty much everything we’ve had to eat here has been so good. The presentation was nice but the meal was pretty bland. Kind of disappointing for $12 for each person.
We headed back to the city, did a bit of shopping, and it was time to eat again! I’ve seen a few instagram reels for a restaurant called Yakuniku Like. Which is like the ramen shop we started our trip at with individual stalls, but I had written down on my notes to try another place called Gyukatsu.
The idea is that they deep fry a steak in panko breadcrumbs for 60 seconds and serve it rare. You have a small stove at your seat to finish the cooking process to the doneness to your liking. Joanna said she wasn’t that hungry but we opted to split an order of the regular sirloin steak and the wagyu.
Joanna commented that this steak costs about the same as Texas Roadhouse but is WAYY more delicious so let’s keep going here instead. I agreed with her, it was like biting into a delicious meaty cloud where it took almost no effort to chew. We were glad that we got both steaks to better appreciate the wagyu cut more. Definitely recommend this restaurant if you’re in Japan as it was about $50 for the both of us.
I wanted to check out the riverfront since it was 8pm and we had already clocked 26k steps. Feet were hurting bad with how much we crammed in today. I’m sad that we’re already leaving Kyoto tomorrow morning for the Kinosaki Onsen.It’s got the small town feel of Fukuoka but with more stuff to do. I forgot how much I like this town and there is still so much left to explore.
