Arashiyama

Day 14

After a hearty breakfast we started to make our way to Kyoto- our mission for the day! We took a bus to Shizuoka station and then caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. In truth, the bullet trains are incredibly over priced and it is definitely cheaper (but much much longer) to travel by bus but the bullet train never gets old, the views and constant building of speed makes it really fun and it makes the time pass very quickly so before we knew it we were arriving in Kyoto station.

Once we arrived in Kyoto we checked into our hostel which is a roll out mat on the floor- going pretty traditional this time and clearly luxurious! We quickly dumped our bags and then headed out to Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine so we could squeeze in an activity on our first day here!

Established in 711AD this is the iconic shrine that many of you will have heard of, it’s a corridor of orange gates or Toris that lead up mountain Inariyama or “holy mountain” and is regarded as one of kyotos and probably Japan’s most famous sights. This makes it incredibly over run with tourists. It was quite the shock coming from the middle of no where seeing no tourists to suddenly being absolutely swarmed by them!! We started at the main hall where we saw a traditional dance and got goshuin in our notebooks and then headed up through the sea of gates of which there is over 10,000 ! Luckily the further up the mountain you go the less people there are so they began to thin out as we gained altitude, but I was really shocked by just how busy it was. I have to say that I’m not surprised they have brought in a new tourist tax that you have to pay hotels and hostels as there is just so many of us!

Day 15

We started this morning in Arashiyama Bamboo Forest which is exaclty what it sounds like- a walkway through forest of bamboo. Again, there were so many people but luckily once you go to see some of the shrines a little further off the main path it quietens down quickly and you can enjoy the temples and views with a quieter outlook. The forest itself was very impressive and picturesque as it cast long shadows and creaked in the wind it was definitely worth the 45 minute bus there!

We spent most of the rest of today going around temples collecting goshuin - we are up to about 11 now as not all temples seem to do them! I also wrote “my wishes and prayers” down on a small wooden slab called Ema, this is traditionally done and then hung up in the temples as it is believed that the gods can read them and make your prayers come true so we will have to wait and see if mine do! I really enjoyed this afternoon as this is a nice way to get away from the crowds of Kyoto as we visited the temples that aren’t “the best” ones and therefore they are completey empty, which I actually think makes them the “best ones” after all!

For those who don’t know, the local authority as of next month are closing lots of the traditional and older areas of Kyoto to tourists including parts of Gion which is home of the geisha girls due to overcrowding and people not respecting the space. To be honest, after today I can’t say i blame them, I know we are here during busy season but it feels 10x more touristy than Tokyo did and sadly not everyone was respectful and were eating in the temples amongst other things. We had to work a little harder to get away from the crowds today than we have before but we found some really lovely spots so I can’t complain!Read more