whatvinaeat: Fushimi Inari Shrine (Japan Trip

Hello again!
Thank you for staying on my blog and reading my stories even though my english is like a crap. With this blog i'm trying to improve my english and I hope I will see some improvements after 100 posts later. But so far you can understand me, rite?

Continuing the story from previous entry….

After a restful sleep on an actual bed, we woke up fully energized and super ready to explore Kyoto. Starting the day with free breakfast from the hotel, i love freebies! Especially foods!

Our first destination is the Fushimi Inari Shrine, temple of thousands red gates. Those lines of red pillars that pop up on googles when you browse about Kyoto Tourist attraction. It's also the shooting location of "Memoirs of Geisha", which i cannot remember anymore...

this scene
(image credits: google)

This is the second day already, yet we're still not familiar with the Japanese train system, and took the wrong direction of train again!! Instead going to Inari, we were heading to Nara, luckily we realized that half way and quickly board the opposite direction train. This is because we depends too much on our common sense, instead of following the sign ages properly, we just follow a group of caucasian tourists, but apparently everyone have different destination. Lol

best travel buddy

Actually it's very easy to go there, just hop on the train JR Nara line and alight at Inari Station. When you walk out from the station you will see a giant red gate, that's the main entrance.

First time seeing real japanese student in their uniform. Wondering if one of them could be sailor moon.

the main gate

There are few temples there, and there was some ceremony also. But we didn't allow to take photos. So we just proceed to take photos with the red gates.

the fox statue

very cute miniature gate charm

There were lots of tourists and students visiting the temple. It might be difficult to take a nice photos without other people photo bombing you. Just go further, there's enough red gates for everyone. These gates are never end. We took lots of photos using tripod.

act cool but got people photo bombing

"OMG I'm here" pose

"normal" couple pose

"failed jump shot"

another "normal" pose

"the walking" pose

"failed ootd" pose. The sweater and the skirt is from Love Bonito btw. The bots is from Charles and Keith

Because this is only the first day, we still have so much energy, we hike all the way to the peak of the Inari mountain. Because the view is always better from top, right?! If you have more time, please go explore further in, you'll find lots of interesting scenery like these:

some ancient altar

and lake

and pretty yellow flower. no sakura.

cute fox wishing charm

sakura on the floor!!

There are 14 altars around the Inari mountain. The weird thing is, on every location map that we passed by, the red dot position is always on the same place. So we never know where is our position right now, how far is the peak or which direction we should take. I've meet several people and they all have the same problem, we don't know where we are. We just go with our basic instinct "follow where the other tourist go".

the confusing map. on every location, the red dot position always the same.

And finally we reached the top of the mountain, there is nothing to see. Yes you red it right. Nothing. It's just the same altar that you've already seen on the previous post. The view also being blocked by the trees. So is it worth to go all the way to the top? I will say of course! It's exercise, good for your body.. Lol

I'm on the top yo!

outside the shire complex, found a stall selling yakitori. couldn't help but buy. Taste so-so

There are some souvenirs store outside the temple complex. I saw a very cute fridge magnet, it's a miniature of the red gate with little bells and ribbon. The price was expensive, 500 jpy. I didn't buy it, because I thought I will find it cheaper somewhere else, but I never see anything like that anymore. Super regret.

After that we cannot decide where to go. We had lunch at a mall nearby Kyoto Station. And we had dessert too because we accidentally pass by the dessert store that sell very pretty fruit tartlet. We ordered mixed berry tart and green tea mille crepe. Both tasted very good.. Actually we just want to order one and share, but the waitress doesn't allow, she said at least each person must order 1 cake or 1 drink. Is this common in Japan? Since there's a reason to order more, we have no problem with this weirdness.

my lunch, cold soba with herring fish. nothing special

this is what they put on the display

those are mangoes!!!

never see a fruit tart these pretty

Matcha Mille Crepe with pretty plating

zoom in

the actual fruit tart, become messy after being cut, but still taste yummy

nicely plated

After our lunch, we still have half more day to explore Kyoto. So we decided to go to the "Golden Pavillion" or known as "Kinkaku-ji". But it's already a very long post, I'm gonna do it on the next post... Stay tune...

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Hello, I'm just gonna continue here...

We go to the Golden Pavillion by a bus from Kyoto Station. It's quite easy for foreign tourist at Kyoto. There's Tourist Centre at the station with english speaking staff. You can just go there anytime for directions and for free maps.

The Golden Pavillion. So magnificent

There's one common rule for every tourist attractions around the world: "Be early". Because if you reached there on the afternoon like past lunch time, it will be super crowded with. And it will be very difficult to find empty spots to take photo. There's always people photobombed you.

You have to pay 400jpy/person to enter this place. For further info please refer here: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3908.html I gather all my info from that website actually.

Apparently there's not much thing to see, just that golden pavillion that you can only take photo of it and some beautiful scenery. The complex also not that big. It probably only take 30 mins the max to go in, go one round, take some photos and done.

another property in the area.

there are students everywhere. not just tourists.

That's why we still have plenty of time for the day and decided to go to "Nijo Castle". We took a bus from the nearest bust stop. The bus stop direction have english text, don't worry. But we weren't sure where to stop. So I asked an old japanese guy who was sitting beside of me, he was very kind and tell us that we should alight in 2 stops. And we reached. Easy peasy. The bus system works like in Singapore.

But we reached there few minutes past 4pm and the castle has already closed. So sad. And we decided just to walk to the nearest train station. My favourite part of every vacation is just walking around with no direction and see how's the local people living their daily life. We went to a supermarket, admiring the veggie sections, all the vegetables looks like they were made of plastics, all in the same size and super fresh. No sign of decaying leaf or bug bites. All looks perfect. How do they do that?! And of course we buy lots of japanese snacks.