Kyoto

The 10am Shinkansen took us to Kyoto in just over 2 hours, a quick luggage dropoff and off we went. After lunch we headed to Fushimi Inari Taisha (711 AD) which is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, mainly up steps to the top of Mt. Inari and there were loads of shrines and bamboo trees on the way. The shrines are dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice and foxes are thought to be Inari's messengers so each has a pair of them at the entrance. We initially thought we were just going up to a viewpoint across the city, but we seemed too close to the top to not keep going, which we all did.

We headed back to the hotel to properly check in then out for Ms H to do some shopping then she chose the restaurant we would go to for dinner! It was a classic sit at the bar while they cooked and served infront of us. We had to grind sesame seeds and pour soya sauce in and dip the food into it, or curry or salt and lemon or ginger... it was lovely and probably the most authentic meal we've had so far and the staff would shout and welcome everyone who came in and left... well we assumed they were, but it was very funny :-)

We thought we were near Pontocho, a very narrow alley filled with small bars and restaurants which we visited last time and sure enough we were, The last photo is Ms H walking down it.

I was looking forward to coming to Kyoto, we nearly dropped it off the list due to lack of time but Ms H was keen to come again and we're so glad we did, even just for 2 nights. There's probably enough here to stay a week so we have a full day to explore tomorrow.