Fingers crossed the blog works today. I almost gave up entirely yesterday.
Yesterday we bought a day pass for Osaka Metro and made a ton of trips.
Mostly because we got on the wrong train and had to get off and on again.
It's okay. It was all part of the experience. We wanted to see Tsūtenkaku by night as it's all lit up and changes colours. It was worth the trip!
A nice balmy (sweaty) night.
We saw a few different places thanks to getting on wrong trains/off wrong stations, and it all ended up well in the end. Look. Colours!
On to today.
We went to Kyoto today and had a whole carriage to ourselves for most of the trip!
I think that's because most Japanese would prefer to keep to themselves than be near us. I've noticed one or two girls cross the road when they see us coming. I mean, we're really HUGE compared to a lot of people here so maybe that's why.
First thing we wanted to do was walk through the Gion district. While it has always been crowded, I have never seen as many people as we saw today. It was HUMID and yet so many girls were dressed up in kimono's and the males in their equivalent.
Here's a few pics but they really don't do the area justice.
I bought a pretty fan to help with the heat on the way up.
And then finally we made it to the top
We tried to take a picture with the shrine in the background but it didn't quite work.
That one kind of worked
What I haven't mentioned yet is that there are a TON of tourists here. So many, that at times it didn't even feel like I was in Japan. I've heard that Kyoto is unhappy about the number of tourists that are coming through and I can probably understand why. Some are very disrespectful.
We wanted to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine.
It's considered rude in Japan to eat/drink and walk, but they made a point to write it on a sign here.
This is an important Shinto shrine in southern Kyoto. It's famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings.
The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds.
Fushimi Inari Shrine has ancient origins, predating the capital's move to Kyoto in 794.
At the very back of the shrine's main grounds is the entrance to the torii gate-covered hiking trail, which starts with two dense, parallel rows of gates called Senbon Torii ("thousands of torii gates"). When I saw the pictures I wanted to go!
The video gives you a better idea of what it was like going through this area.
It looked pretty impressive and honestly, that's why I wanted to come here but unfortunately, that, and how to get there, was all I researched. I didn't know that the hike to the summit of the mountain and back takes 2-3 hours.
That would have been okay, but halfway up it started bucketing down like I haven't seen before. We were completely drenched. Our face, hair, clothes, everything was completely soaked through!! and it didn't stop raining so we just went down very carefully.
My makeup had completely come off so I asked Deno if I had black running from my eyes. He said no. When we finally got back into Kyoto and I used a bathroom, I saw my eyes had streaks of black all around them. Thanks Deno.
Here's a few more pics before the rain hit.
What I love about the Japanese is that they can sleep anywhere. It's not uncommon to see people sleeping on the trains. In fact, I sometimes think it's more uncommon to NOT sleep on a train.
But I don't think I've seen someone sleeping in a Starbucks before. I know it's not cool to take pics of people but I have kept her identity hidden. No names will be revealed and, in her defense, it was probably naptime somewhere right?
It's worth it to come to Kyoto just to see the magnificent train station
Also, they have a PIE FACE!!!
I starting to feel sad that our time in Osaka is coming to an end soon. Two more full days to go though!
Thanks for reading
OYASUMINASAI
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