Day 5: Fushimi Inari Shrine + Nishiki Market + Arashiyama

It was raining when we were ready to stepped out but thankfully the hotel provided umbrellas as well! I can't say enough good things about this hotel! But luckily the rain had stopped by the time we reached our destination.

A chocolate banana drink for the hike up :D

First stop for the day: Fushimi Inari Shrine. I believe they filmed a scene from Memoirs Of A Geisha here. The part where a young Sayuri was running through a row of torii gates.

Featuring millions of Tori gates

Inari was seen as the patron of business and each of the torii was donated by a Japanese business. You can see the name of the business on the back of the gate.

But you don't have to own a business to have a torii gate in the shrine, you can buy a mini one from the gift shop to write on.

Other forms of worship: writing your wish on the foxes. Foxes are believed to be messengers.

Many people drew faces for their foxes lol.

Or you can just write on a piece of paper and tie it here.

 

 

Most people threw coins before praying but some people threw small pebbles.

A cat about to attack a crow. Crows in Japan are huge, they are about the same size as a small cat.

Stopped for some breakfast about half way up the hill.

View from restaurant.

Some snacks for later.

Kitsune udon or 'fox udon'. A noodle soup topped with pieces of aburaage (fried tofu), a treat favored by foxes

A cute fox statue.

Fox fountain.

Mini shrines.

View from the top! I don't think this is actually the top but we were pretty tired by this point and the steps were a little slippery from the rain earlier so the climb down was going to be a bitch for sure.

Adorable Japanese kids doing a roll call.

Finally, we found our way to the starting point again. There were 2 Japanese girls dressed in pretty kimonos and quite a number of tourists were getting their pictures taken with them.

Short trip to Tofukuji Temple, one train station away.

The temple is famous for its autumn foliage and it's tradition to view the leaves from the Tsūten-kyō bridge. It costs ¥400 just to go on the bridge, which was a little too expensive for us so we decided to go to Nishiki Market instead.

Surprisingly most of the locals I asked did not seem to know where Nishiki Market was. Or I just have really bad luck and asked all the wrong people. I thought it was supposed to be a popular tourist attraction :(

We shopped around Kawaramachi while looking. Spotted on the way, a Lipton cafe. Cute but we wanted to snack at Nishiki Market. Finally found someone who knew where the market was in a shop selling stuffed bear keychains.

Cute mochi. The shopkeeper didn't seem to happy that I snapped a photo despite not buying anything so I quickly moved on lol.

Konnamonjya

10 freshly made doughnuts for ¥250. A real steal if you ask me, they were delicious!

Sundaes for ¥300 each. I loved the biscuits in it.

Soy milk treats for dogs! The sign is so adorable.

Next we headed to Arashiyama.

It was only about 5pm but it was dark already. We missed out on the view but I think the night view is pretty too.

The romantic Togetsukyo (Moon Crossing Bridge)

There were many young trishaw pullers running around and one of them tried to get us to ride but this is such a couply thing to do, I'm not going to do it with my mum, c'mon!

He mentioned that it was going to be beautiful in the bamboo forest now that the it had light up so we just walked there by ourselves lol. It was quite dark tho, lit only by a few lamps. So we headed back to Kyoto Station instead.

A tall Christmas tree in Kyoto Station.

Loot for the day.

Bought some things from Kyoto Station Isetan's Tsumori Chisato.

Dinner for the day. Pizza Margherita cup noodles.

This is the best cup noodles I've ever had. So wonderfully cheesy. For dessert we had some Manneken Belgain waffles, bought from Kyoto Station. We had a sweet potato and an almond one and both were really good! I think it's safe to say anything with sweet potato is good in Japan :)

Day 6