I can’t really sleep so I got up early to go out to the Fushimi Inari shrine with all the red tori gates. I did get there early but I got on an express train that shot me way past my stop and I had to backtrack. Fun start to the day but the place was amazing and surreal. So many gates. If you were tired of seeing Mt. Fuji, get ready to see a lot of red gates. And let’s say I’m only posting 2% of the photos I took. LOL
Then I went to the Heian Shrine that my dad went to back in 1955. He had some postcards from there and I tried to match them up to the current day. It was astonishing how little the place has changed.
I basically walked back to my hotel through the Gion Geiko district. I saw lots of people playing dress-up and no actual Geiko or maiko.
I did my laundry and rested. It feels great to have truly clean clothes.
I took the train out to the Arashiyamo bamboo forest and Tenryuji Temple. It was still jammed with people and my ride back to Kyoto was the most crowded train I have been on in all of Japan.
I came back to Kyoto Station, which is impressive, and stood in line for an hour to reserve seats on the Osaka train tomorrow and the romantic train on Thursday. I don’t need reservations to go to Nara on Thursday.
There’s 100%chance of rain on Friday and there’s a 100% chance I’m not doing any of those things I did today then, which is why I ended up walking 12.5 miles today, and I’m once again exhausted.
All these pictures are exactly out of order, but I’m too tired to fix them. You’ll get the idea. Oh, and are you tired of seeing cherry blossoms? It’s sacrilege of course, but I’ll say it: I’m over them. People are still oohing and ahhing, but mercifully they are falling off and leaves are coming out so maybe we can all move on. The girls dyed their hair sakura pink and every single dessert is cherry flavored.
Temples, Shrines, and History on a Stunning Spring Day
