Kyoto

We arrived at Kyoto station after a two hour train journey to cover over 400 km. Our hotel was quite near the station so we dropped our bags and went for a walk along the river bank and, unfortunately, similarly to Tokyo, the cherry blossom was still quite late although the trees did have more blossom on them. We had something to eat and then headed to the hotel as we had an early start in the morning.

We awoke before 6 and headed to the station as we were going to visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine and all of my reading had warned that it gets very busy so we should go early. We headed to the train on the Nara line and it was obvious that other people had heeded that advice as the train was very busy despite the early hour.

The Inari Shrine is amazing with huge temple buildings in the main courtyard and the famous trail to the top of the mountain through the thousands of vermillion torii gates. The walk is not too strenuous and as we were early we did not have the issue of passing people coming down so it was a lovely walk. There are many shrines to stop and look at as well as a lot of fox statues which are the messengers of the god Inari. There are great views over Kyoto at various points in the climb.

Once we were down again we boarded another train to the start of the Philosopher’s Walk and started at the Nanzen-Ji Temple. However before then I needed a coffee and we found a nearby coffee shop called The Blue Bottle. I only mention this  because not only were the surroundings very nice to sit and drink coffee but it was the single best cup of coffee I had in my whole time in Japan

We walked along the Philosopher’s Path along the canal looking at all of the Cherry trees coming slightly more into blossom and ended up at the Ginkaku-ji Temple.

We then had a great late lunch in a recommended vegetarian restaurant called Cafe Ren Ginkakuji which was delicious. After that we walked back down to the hotel through parts of the old town Gion district and headed back to the hotel.

After a brief rest in the hotel we walked a short distance to the location of a traditional tea ceremony. It was just the two of us and a hostess who explained all the rituals and included us in the full ceremony. It was very interesting but as expected very elaborate.

We had a dinner in the restaurant area under Kyoto station and back to the hotel.