Fushimi Inari

My typhoon never came and I was sorely disappointed. However, I got time to visit Kyoto this weekend because it wasn't storming!

This trip to Kyoto was just as successful as the first. Four of us arrived in Kyoto and set out to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine. This shrine is famous for having 40,000 torii (gateways) painted in orange winding around a mountain. It was beautiful and full of mosquitoes, but well worth the itching! After we had explored the area we found a small cafe and pointed to something on the menu that said, "hambu" in Japanese. We were expecting a hamburger, but instead a box comes with rice, fried fish, meatloaf-ish, pickled vegetable of a mysterious sort, salad (japanese salad's are VERY different from USA salads), and a light cheesecake. Each portion was a sample size so it was fullfilling without being gluttonous. Which is how I like it!

Once lunch was through we enjoyed the bus ride back to the train station with elbows in our faces and feeling like falling domino's. We really did enjoy it, that isn't sarcasm. I think I was laughing the whole time because I felt like I was on a wooden rollercoaster. Once back at the train station, we jumped on another bus (we bought the 'bus fare for the day ticket') and headed to the National Kyoto Museum. The museum was small but had some grand Buddha's and impressive painted scrolls. We then went to Gion, better known as the Geisha district. 

It's said that the geisha come out with their painted faces around 5pm, so we shopped in the small shops and ate in a sweet shop until it was nearing dark and our chances would increase. 

I saw two of them walking down the street towards us and I turned to my friend, Holly, and said, "Take my picture!!" Somehow she thought I wanted a picture of the building and so there is a picture of me standing very very excitedly next to a building. After she put down her camera she exclaims, "GEISHA!!" Ohhh, did we had a laugh over that!

Eventually we made our way back to the train station on a packed bus and took the ride home. I tend to stand out being so tall in Japan, but I must say it comes in handy on a crowded bus. I get my own breathing room!