Tag 8&9: Fushimi Inari und Arashiyama

Day 8, August 29, 2023

Hello everyone,

As already indicated yesterday, today we should go to the Fushimi Inarii Shrine. A special shrine, which is characterized by its several thousand, around 10,000, red gates.

Since it is a total tourist attraction and it can get really crowded, we decided to get up very early so we could take a look at this beautiful place in peace.

But very early means something different for me than it does for Moritz. When I told him that we had to get up at 5:40, he wasn't at all enthusiastic and we made the compromise that he would decide spontaneously whether he would come with us or not.

So the alarm went off at 5:40 and just as I expected, Moritz wasn't in a good mood at all. For everyone who knows Moritz well, you can probably imagine what I mean...

So I wasn't all that sad when I had to go off alone.

That just meant more peace for me ;)

I left the hotel at 6:17 and was at the shrine at 6:40. Since up until this point I still thought that there were “only” 1000 and not 10,000 goals, I thought to myself “That can’t be 1000 goals!” I’ll probably be through here in 10 minutes.”

Well, I thought wrong. Of course, I also didn't know that I had to climb a mountain to discover this shrine. After just 15 minutes I was completely exhausted, sweating and completely wet.

But we continued on and the deeper I got into the hiking trail, the more beautiful it became.

I was also alone most of the time. It was truly a magical place, especially at 7:00 in the morning!

I still wonder who had the motivation to build all of this and, above all, to drag it up the mountain.

The hiking trail included a total of 14 shrines, which meant that you always walked along the gate path for about 7-10 minutes and then arrived at a small square where there was a writing.

I bravely fought my way up the mountain for another hour and even discovered small stalls and shops at the top. So some people walk up to work here every day?!?!

When I got to the top I picked up a postcard as a souvenir and then walked all the way back.

I even made it to the hotel in time for breakfast.

There are 4 different vegetarian/vegan breakfast types in the hotel, all of which were very unusual and tasty. Moritz was also awake by now and definitely in a better mood than at 5:40.

We ate our breakfast together and slowly something that I had long expected crept in: tiredness.

So we went up and continued sleeping/resting until 12:00. But that was very necessary for both of us, because we have always done sooo much the last 7 days and had 17000-24000 steps a day.

When we woke up, we decided to slowly make our way to Nijo Castle, which was built in 1601 and was the former seat of the Shogun of Kyoto. This was very beautiful to look at, with a wide moat and great, large gardens.

One noticed here how different the architecture of the buildings, but also of the green areas, was compared to our European ones.

But it was so hot again that it was almost unbearable. But today it was me who seemed very upset.

Perhaps Moritz has already adapted more to the climate?

Actually, you could also go into the castle, but of course not when we are there.

So we decided to go back soon as we wanted to go for a swim later in the afternoon. All the little ponds in the castle got us in the mood for a swim!

The green-turquoise moat water with the koi fish inside also invited us to jump in.

Around 3:00 p.m. we went back and went to eat something. Somehow we've been soooo hungry for the past few days, why is that...?

So we went to the convenience store of our choice and got some food.

After a short break, we continued at 5:00 p.m. to the bathing area, which was about 55 minutes away from our hotel.

It's just stupid that the "Sunshine Beach" wasn't a Sunshine Beach, but simply a meadow on a rocky, algay lake where no one swam. Neither sunshine nor beach...

It also got a bit too...

Great, we were really disappointed.

In addition, my flip-flops, which I had gotten for €1 at Whoolworth, broke and I had no shoes left... luckily, the thoughtful Moritz had two pairs with him.

After about 10 minutes, Moritz got courage, because he spotted a person in the water about 500 meters away from us.

So we changed and hopped into the pleasant water.

It was really nice and we were glad to have come.

But around 6:30 p.m. we were slightly hungry again and we went back.

When we got to the hotel room, we freshened up, relaxed a bit and set out at 9 p.m. to look for food.

We ended up in a Korean restaurant, which we initially regretted. The menu was completely different than what was shown outside and it was also more expensive.

We made the best of it and ordered a little something. Since my snack was really relatively small, I picked up something at the convenience store.

The kimchi we tried, there were 3 different homemade varieties, but they were very tasty!

Armed with a drink, we spent the evening strolling through Kyoto (Moritz just wanted to go for a long walk, can you believe that?!) and exploring the area.

We fell into bed in the hotel in the evening, exhausted, and looked forward to tomorrow.

It should go to Arashiyama :)

Day 9:

On the ninth day of our trip to Japan, we were once again inspired by the local cultural offerings. However, the day started with breakfast, as it should. After the morning hunger was satisfied, we started.

We actually spent almost the whole day in Arashiyama, a rather remote part of Kyoto that seemed pretty close to nature. Since the weather was really extreme again, we cooled our feet in the river for the first time. I (Moritz) could have done that all day, but a small animal sucked itself onto my foot (maybe a small leech?) and then the fun was over again. Well, things have to go on.

No sooner said than done, so we set off to explore the area. First we went up a small hill, through the so-called Kimono Forest (there were actually a lot of people in kimonos there).

Without realizing it at first, we were straight on the way to THE tourist attraction. In Arashiyama there is a very well-known bamboo forest that we didn't want to visit at first to avoid the tourists. The first few meters through this forest we were actually surprised at how few people there were. However, after the next few meters and a few pictures, that changed. All of a sudden a wall of people came towards us. And as is always the case with many people, there are now some who think that the entire forest belongs to them. Because we stood right in front of you and took pictures (knowing full well that you're standing right behind them and basically breathing into their neck).

But now that we know that, we used our tactics, with which we pushed through the crowds like a rock in the surf. In situations like this, we always hold hands (who wants to break up a couple?) and look past people in the direction we're going. You should NEVER look at people directly, as this will only cause confusion.

Once we made it through the crowds, we started to feel hungry again. After a quick Google search we found a cheap little restaurant about 1.5km from our location. So we headed there. When we arrived at our destination, we found a cute little restaurant where three people work, including a nice grandma as the waitress. As is usual here, we had our food about three minutes after ordering, so the drinks took longer. Once again we enjoyed it very much, as did the other guests apparently, as all we could hear throughout the restaurant was slurping (here a sign that it was tasty). On the way out, the waitress came after us because Jule had forgotten her fan inside. Very nice in any case.

Before we return to the main part of Arashiyama, we looked around at a few souvenir shops and bought a little something. Jule also found a temple that of course she had to visit while I waited outside on a bench because my feet were a little sore. When Julchen came out again after half an hour, she told me what I had missed before we started the rest of the way. In Arashiyama we strolled through the streets a bit and tried some of the local street food. I personally found the ice cream we ate there particularly tasty, which was essentially thinly sliced ice cream with syrup. Definitely recommended given the weather.

Afterwards we started our way back to our hotel, where we first rested. Towards the evening we went together to the Fuji Inari Shrine, the shrine that Jule had explored alone the morning of the previous day. I'm definitely glad I saw this one too, as it was perhaps the most impressive shrine I've seen here, even if we didn't walk the entire route. After we had accomplished this, we grabbed a quick dinner at the nearest convenience store and explored the area a bit. That was actually it for this day. We thank you for taking the time to follow our reports again.

Kind regards from both of us and see you next time :)