After some shopping in the covered laneway tourist mall, we walked the 40ish minutes back to Kyoto Station to retrieve our luggage from the locker and then hopped on a quick train ride to check into our house. We quickly dropped off our bags and then headed to the Fushimi Inari Shrine – one of my favourite spots in Kyoto. The Shrine was only a few minutes away from our home. The Shrine compound is quite large, including a hike up Mt Inari following through a tunnel of vermillion-coloured torii. The effect is quite spectacular. Considering the timing (the sun was just setting) and the amount of walking we had already done that day, plus jet lag, and not eating enough calories, we decided not to hike all the way up the mountain, but it was a good workout nonetheless. We did hike up to a pretty nice view though.
The front gate:
Erez and Kerrie:
The earliest structures from the Shrine Compound were built in the year 711. Pretty incredible. There are over 10,000 of the bright vermillion torii (gates) in the area around the temple, but there are at least 800 which were installed right next to each other, winding up the mountain like a giant orange tunnel.
After the shrine we (mostly the kids) sampled all sorts of street food (wagyu beef on a stick, wagyu beef sushi, mini octopus on a stick, gyoza, grilled green tea dango rice paste balls on a stick, and sweet potato chips), which was fantastic and then we went to a food court and sampled a whole bunch of other foods (mostly ramen and ramen bowls). Aubrey and I shared a bowl of Taiwanese (pork free) spicy ramen which was the perfect end to a great day.
Teva at sunset
