Japan Trip, The Mesmerizing Fushimi Inari Shrine and Kyoto Tower

After a few fun days in Osaka it was time to move on to Kyoto, our second stay for our trip. We dragged all of our luggage (bringing a big suitcase was not the best plan) up and down the stairs of the metro station, took the metro and transferred to the JR-Kyoto line for our train to Kyoto. During the ride we enjoyed the picturesque views of mountains and kids in school uniforms. We even saw a few palm trees. What I noticed is that Japanese rivers usually have broad river banks, that usually function as some kind of recreational spot/ park at the same time. You can see people picnicking, playing sports, kids playing...

We arrived in the huge train station of Kyoto. Seriously, it's massive. There was even a orchestra with 'Pirates of the Carribean' music playing when we arrived. And when we went exploring further we also encountered a kimono exhibition and many shops and restaurants. Exiting the station we were met with the warm and humid weather typical of June (minus the rain) and it seemed more hot here than in Osaka. We hadn't had time to drink or eat anything yet either. Luckily our hotel was quite close to the station and not difficult to find. Our room was tiny, but cheap and clean, and we enjoyed ourselves there. First we decided on our plan for the day, after that we headed to the 7/11 for breakfast sandwiches.
By the way, I plan to write about the hotels I stayed in at the end of this series about my Japan trip, for the people who are interested.

For our trip to Tokyo we wanted to buy discount tickets for the bullet train. So we searched trough the big train station for the shop selling the tickets, which was not an easy task. After asking several people we finally found it. The tickets we bought are called 'Puratto Kodama Economy Plan', it allows you to travel the slowest bullet train called Kodama. It costs 9800 yen, about 3500 yen cheaper than what a normal ticket between Kyoto and Tokyo costs for Kodama, and you get a coupon for a free drink, but we didn't use it. The Kodama takes bout four hours for this route. Just be sure that you buy the ticket in advance!

After that was fixed we went to Fushimi, a small village with even a smaller station. But that doesn't matter because it is home to the grand Fushimi Inari Taisha (Fushimi from now on). When you exit the station you are faced by a big red torii (gate), so it is hard to miss. We hadn't entered the premises yet or we were being questioned by a group of school kids, this time about soccer. 'We like Snidel!', meaning Sneijder, was their conclusion. Then we finally got to explore Fushimi, undisturbed. I was amazed by the bright colors, thousands of paper cranes and cute fox decorations everywhere. Fushimi is known for the red gates, and seeing them in real life I can say they are mesmerizing. So great. But Fushimi has much more to offer; As I said before there are many pretty decorations and there is a hike along the mountain where you can enjoy the nature, traditional restaurants and a good workout of course! We were really beat after the 'hike' but it was more than worth it. It was my favorite place in all of Japan.

Sneaky shot of a Miko priestess

Love the colors

My favorite shot of the entire trip

Before going on the hike there is a small shop. We bought some amulets there for good luck, health for my grandmother and one for a healthy baby for my cousin's pregnant girlfriend. This is also the place where you can buy prayer votives to write your wish and hang there so your wish can come true. We saw them near the entrance of the temple with pictures of bunnies and temples, but these were even better because they looked like fox heads. And you can draw faces on them!

traditional restaurant on the mountain

refreshment!

Inside the restaurant, you can sit in raised floors.

In the afternoon we returned to Kyoto. We thought it would be a nice time to visit Kyoto Tower to catch the sunset. There wasn't much of a sunset to see because of the smog or clouds, but the view was good anyway. From the tower you can clearly see that Kyoto is surrounded by mountains. And in between the buildings and street you can see big patches of green which usually indicates a temple. There is also a restaurant in Kyoto Tower and we figured, why not dine fancy for once? But sadly the restaurant was closed. So we ended up at Sukiyaki, a cheap chain restaurants which serves good curry rice and gyudon for a low price. You get your meals so quickly there, I think it didn't even take two minutes. So it was definitely not fancy, but budget friendly and easy. And we love curry a lot, so no problem!

This reminded me of the snake game on old Nokia phones ;p Taxi Snake!

• Kyoto station is huge
• Torii are a typical Japanese sight, and in real life they are just as grand as you'd imagine
• Fushimi Inari Taisha is a must visit!
• And don't miss out on the hike
• There are several restaurants and vending machines along the way, so no need to worry about dehydration.
• Make sure you stay hydrated though! Especially in the humid weather.
• Japanese grandmas and grandpas are so fit. While we were sweating and puffing, they easily passed us during the hike
• The Japanese use cute napkins to wipe their sweat. It's a good idea to get one too if you sweat a lot in humid weather.
• Kyoto Tower gives a nice overview of the city
• It is also one of the view tall buildings in Kyoto. There are not many tall buildings in Kyoto to preserve the traditional city scape and views of the city. There are actually many restrictions and different kind of zones when it comes to building in Japan, but I won't bore you with that now :)
• Go to Sukiya, Yoshinoya or Matsuya for fast and cheap food.
• Curry in Japan is very mild