Temples and Shrines

It's still early morning when the alarm clock calls our dreamy mind back to this wonderful land. Most temples and shrines open as early as sunrise, which is as early as 4h42 in June. We want to beat the crowd, but maybe not as ambitiously as sunrise. As breakfast is only served at 7AM in our hotel, we decide to skip it today and make sure we're in time at Fushimi Inari with its famous torii-gates.

Public transport in Kyoto is slightly less convenient compared to Tokyo. You have to rely more on buses or transfer in stations. That being said: it's still astonishingly good and at least you can count on the timetables. Nevertheless, today we have our bikes to get us from point A to point B in no time. We've selected a route at the riverside to get us to Fushimi Inari. It's beautiful and tranquil. In the early morning sun, we pass some joggers doing their exercise before the heat of the day.

We arrive at Fushimi Inari around 7h15AM and park our bikes in the designated parking lot. We're definitely not the first ones, but at least we know it's better than waiting around 9AM to get here.
The whole touristic site starts with some temple grounds and then a trail that takes you up a hill that is covered with the red/orange gates.
We try to make haste on the main temple grounds, as we'll have time to see them on our way back. I'm writing 'try to' as it's hard to not take pictures at all...

Soon after, we're amid the thousands and thousands of torii gates. It's impressive to see and occasionally it's still possible to take a picture without too many tourists in it. The crowd is still okay-ish enough to sometimes halt to allow people to take their picture. This is also a Japanese thing... Or maybe it's the country's atmosphere and culture that imposes a certain degree of respect. There are many locals and tourists that stop to allow you to take your picture.

As you climb higher on the hill, the density of the torii gates decreases, and they become less and less impressive. At a viewpoint overlooking Kyoto most people, including us, turn back. The trail back takes you along a slightly different path down to the main temple but to be honest, we didn't find it equally beautiful or impressive. Especially because the gates have some markings painted or engraved in them that are only visible from one side. The trail back to the main temple took us past many typical graveyards or shrines and fewer torii gates.

When we arrive back at the main grounds, we can witness a ceremony in one of the temples. We stand and watch for a couple of minutes from the outside. It's clear that the crowd has only thickened over the past few minutes, so it was a good idea to come "early".
Now, it's time for breakfast! It's around 8h45AM now and we find a very nice breakfast spot nearby. It's a small place, with in the back places or benches overlooking a pond. We have some muesli with yoghurt and a piece of home-made cake. And of course, a cup of coffee. It's delicious!

We grab our bikes and continue to Kiyomizudera Temple. By now, it's starting to become pretty warm in the sun and whenever we have to bike uphill, we can understand why some people don't like the bikes at all. On our route to Kiyomizudera, we pass Tofuku-ji temple with a nice zen garden inside. Ann isn't really convinced about the zen gardens, but I find it oddly peaceful.
We also stop at Sanju-sangen-do. A larger temple with also some nice orange pillars that make great photos and a very impressive inner hall with 1001 statues. Photos are prohibited inside, but we managed to take a picture of a flyer that was hanging outside.

The road to Kiyomizudera is almost entirely uphill. Especially the last part is heavy in the blazing sun. Finally, we arrive at Kiyomizudera. By now, it's around noon and the crowd has grown immensely. We find a place to park our bikes and continue on foot. It's not that hard to tell which is the main street leading up to the temple as you're almost simply grabbed by the flow of people that head to the temple. The main street is full of little souvenir shops and places to eat. We're also looking for some place to sit and drink or eat something as we're both still exhausted from biking uphill. Unfortunately, with so many people around, it's not easy to find a tranquil spot to sit down. In the end, we entered a matcha shop and buy two drinks. We're not allowed to drink it in the air-conditioned shop, but they have a small courtyard in the back where we can sit on a bench. Even in the shade it's still hot, but the cool drink is most welcome!

Having gained a bit of strength, we continue to the temple. It's a huge temple on a wooden platform overlooking the city of Kyoto. This area of town is also known to have some geisha neighborhoods, and a lot of tourists and locals dress up traditionally to visit this sacred place. I don't think we've seen a true geisha, but it's easy enough to spot a lot of men and women in traditional clothes. Which make some nice pictures of course.

After we've visited the huge temple on the platform, we continue our path to a red pagoda that is dominating the landscape. From there we also get some nice views of the temple itself. Below the temple, there's a sacred water source that is divided into three different streams of water. Each stream brings a different fortune: long life, prosperity in school/career, or love. You can drink from one of them but drinking from more than one is considered greedy. The queue is quite big, so we don't join the line and press on to the main neighborhood surrounding the temple. This area is also known as the Gion district and is full of traditional houses, shops, and an older atmosphere.

It's a nice area to stroll through the little streets. In the middle of the Gion-district stands another pagoda. The streets are crowded and it's difficult to take a nice shot here. Better to just appreciate the area and go with the flow. The whole area is not that big, so you can get around quite easily. We stop at another cafe to have (another) matcha ice tea and take a moment to rest.

After our refreshments, we continue north and make a short stop at Kodaji temple with a tiny bamboo forest in the garden.

Here's already a tip for future travelers: try to visit bamboo forests connected to smaller temples rather than to wait for the famous bamboo forest in the Western part of Kyoto. You'll be able to take way nicer pictures than in the overwhelming touristic place!

We finish our tour on foot at the Yasaka shrine, another famous landmark in Kyoto where they celebrate in July an important festival. It's a shrine full of lanterns with a beautiful park next to it. One of the places to be when the cherry blossoms are in bloom.

By the time we finish the items on our list, it's already 5PM and we have to walk quite a bit back to the starting place where we left our bikes. The whole area is a no-bike zone, so we couldn't take it along anyway. We pick up our bikes and ask the guard at the car park for a day-ticket for our bikes. With this ticket we can park for free for the rest of the day. The conversation doesn't go very smoothly as the man warns us that the permit is only valid until 6PM so there's little use. However, we hope to be somewhere else by then and make use of it. He hands us the paper and we enjoy the downhill ride back to downtown Kyoto.

Despite not being the largest city, we have to make a few stops to circumnavigate the no-bike zones in the city in order to get back to our hotel. Back in the hotel, we park our bikes in the storage area of the hotel and refresh ourselves a bit in the room. Time to start and think about the next thing: dinner.

Having tried the explicit sushi experience in Tokyo at the restaurant where we had to stand. We'd like to compare this to another famous Japanese experience: sushi from a conveyor belt. We google a bit and find a few places that have this concept. It becomes clear that this is generally considered as fast-food sushi rather than haute-cuisine. Nevertheless, there are certainly also places out there that are at the other end of the spectrum using this concept.
In the end, we select a restaurant near the Kyoto train station. Somewhere in one of the underground walkways full of restaurants and stores.

Because we're already pretty tired from today, we decide to take the subway to Kyoto train station.
A few moments later, we find the place, and together with it, a waiting line to enter the restaurant. Because we have only found a few places with a conveyor belt, we decide to stick with this one and just join the queue. We have to pass the number of people at the front and our name. As soon as someone clears a table, they will call us. Everyone is patiently waiting in line. Mostly on their phones like classic Japanese spirit.

When it's our turn to enter the restaurant, we receive a place at the front. We discover that the prices are determined by the plate that the sushi is on. You keep all the plates, and at check-out the waiter will make your bill based on the color of the plates. There's also a tablet in front of us where you can order drinks or special sushi (for example without wasabi). We try a bit of everything and come to two conclusions:

1. You're adding up plates rather quickly making this not necessarily a cheap food option.
2. The quality of the sushi is no way near what we've had before in Tokyo. We struggle to keep the sushi together as the neta (topping) falls easily off the rice and the latter breaks apart. Also taste wise we amateurs can notice a clear difference. Kudos to the restaurant in Tokyo and sorry for those waiting in line having to watch us eat.

Having enjoyed yet another tasty meal and experience, we head back to our hotel. Time to go to bed!

Tomorrow, we will discover the Western part of Kyoto with - once again - a lot of things on the planning.もっと詳しく