This morning kicked off with a visit to perhaps Kyoto’s most famous tourist attraction, Fushimi Inari Taisha Sembon Torii, or the ten thousand gates walk. Mini rant, that Japan’s metro system is a pain. It’s privatized, so you can’t just get a ticket to use public transit. You need to see which company operates the subway line or bus you’re getting on and get a ticket with them. It also means no transfers and no single unified day pass that works on everything. Anyways, we got a late start and were walking by 10am, seemingly when all of the rest of Kyoto’s tourists were there. It was crazy busy, but thinned the farther we walked. We had an enjoyable two hours passing under a continuous stream of these gates. As far as I understand, private donors donate the gates and have their name carved into the back. There were shrines along the way and a nice view over Kyoto near the top. Viki had her fortune read, which, when translated told her that she’s “a big deal”. She felt rather chuffed by this.
We then took the train to Gion and headed to Nishiki Market, another very touristy area with a huge covered pedestrian arcade filled with food stalls. We spent a few hours here and tried conveyer belt sushi (which was much cheaper than home), Taiwanese fried chicken, bubble tea, sake, and a crab stick. Henry loved both the crab stick and the chicken. The area is really fun, with tons of cool foods and crafts to see. We even found a hidden climbing gym upstairs.
Our final stop of the day was Gion, the famous geisha district. We went to Hanamikoji Street, which is where they’re known to sometimes be on their way to and from entertaining clients. I think we may have gotten lucky, but we just happened to see a geisha right in front of us quickly cross the street from one small private alley to another. Her face was painted white, her hair was immaculate, she was dressed up completely, and she moved quickly and quietly. The area was also very cool. It’s a fancy area with lots of hidden side streets, filled with popular restaurants with very limited seating. We weren’t hungry after all of the afternoon eating, so just got Henry a noodle sandwich from a convenience store and got him home for 7pm bedtime.
We’ve been away from the hotel from around 9am to 7pm and are now wiped. We’ll take it in turns going to the onsen and then settle in for the evening.
