Day 8: Journey to Kyoto & Fushimi Inari Shrine

Get ready for a long post... I just realized I can type on my tablet in the hotel room and only go down to the lobby to publish the post. :D So here we go, haha.

We woke up early (not on purpose, lol) and packed up to check out of our hotel in Matsumoto. I had my usual breakfast of rice ball & coffee bought from the konbini the night before. As we were leaving the hotel and walking across the plaza to the station, we saw performers setting up Japanese taiko drums. They were getting ready for a festival tonight. Unfortunately, we had to keep to our schedule, so we didn't get to see it. We did hear them warming up, though!

Our journey to Kyoto first involved a limited express train. The train route wound us straight through the middle of central Japan to Nagoya. The scenery was so beautiful. There were hundreds of rice paddies, and I finally figured out that the lighter green leaves mixed in amongst the evergreens was bamboo!! It was everywhere... Tall, thin bamboo with large fluffs of green at the top. Very beautiful. The area the train traveled through is called the Kiso Valley and it follows the Kiso river. Thus, we saw this river many times as we rode.

At Nagoya we transferred to the bullet train bound for Kyoto. It really poured on the speed and got us there in only 38 minutes! From there we took a subway and then walked a couple blocks to our new hotel. This one is similar to our last in that it's a large, middle-class hotel with lots of amenities. They offer free bike rental which we might take them up on over the next few days. Anyway, we checked in and cooled off in our hotel for a while. We were tired from the heat, but decided not to waste the opportunity to see our first sight here in the ancient capital of Japan.

So we hopped a local train to see the famous Fushimi Inari shrine, best known for its thousands of red torii gates heading up the mountain. The entrance to the shrine is right across from the small Inari train station. We followed some other Americans to the shrine and I started snapping pictures. Shrines in Japan are Shinto, the native religion of the country, while temples are Buddhist. The shrine buildings were all painted a stunning red-orange and white. The clouds had moved on, too, so it made for an even more stunning picture! There were a lot of foreigners there... At one point I even said "sumimasen" (excuse me) to one of them. Slightly embarrassing, but I've gotten so used to saying sumimasen that I don't even notice who I'm saying it to. :P Anyway, we walked up some stairs past shrine buildings until reaching the entrance to the paths lined with torii gates. There were several paths with torii of different sizes. It was so amazing to walk along underneath them! It didn't feel like being in the forest, except for the deafening cicadas. XP I took some video walking up and down under the gates... definitely a magical moment.

Well, it was a good day. Tomorrow we will probably go to Nijo Castle and the Silver Pavilion, but our plans aren't quite set in stone yet. I have a lot I want to see in Kyoto so we'll see what happens. Thanks for taking the time to read this. :)