Fushimi shrine and Nara deer 🦌

Our last full day in Japan :(
Of course we had to go to the famous shrine with a million (my estimate) orange gates.

Stop 1
Fushimi Inari
Shinto shrine to business and success on the slopes of Mt. Inari complete with tons of orange gates. The gates are all dedicated to different donors and form a near unbroken tunnel for the entire 1hr hike up Mt. Inari. Once you get to the top the view down on Kyoto is pretty good, but the main reason to do this is the long hike through the gates. Happy we got there early enough to beat the crowds.

Stop 2
Nara
An hour on the train from Fushimi Inari is Nara, a quiet little town with a park and forest area that is home to the Nara deer. They were believed to be holy by the monks that inhabited the area in the past and so were left alone to become very comfortable around people. These days, they eat snacks out of tourist's hands. Proceeds from snacks sales go towards the maintenance of the area. Win win. We found it a lovely experience all together. While this is no secret to tourists, there weren't huge crowds of people there either.

Stop 3
Steakhouse
After feeding the deer, we went back to Kyoto for dinner time. We ended up in a steakhouse that we thought was a proper wagyu place. However, it was a western steakhouse and required an advance notice for wagyu orders. Oh well, Angus sirloin please! It was cool to see the Japanese interpretation of a western steak, though, complete with a raw egg sauce for dipping.

Stop 4
Jazz bar - Hello Dolly
After our meal, we fulfilled Sinéad's lifelong dream; we went to a Japanese jazz bar. It played western classics such as Django Reinhardt and served western whisky cocktails. Would be nice to hear som Japanese jazz, but in fairness Kyoto is very focused on the west in a way that Tokyo and Osaka aren't.

This pretty well concludes our Japan trip. Off to Seoul tomorrow afternoon through Osaka airport.Read more