30.01.2020 - Day 35 - Kyoto, Japan

Today was all about Japanese culture, combined with some physical activity like climbing what felt like 10,000 stairs 😅. First, we walked from the hotel for about 40 minutes to Tofukuji Temple, with its beautiful Zen gardens and impressive gatehouse. In one of the gardens, you're not allowed to wear shoes. The friendly Japanese staff offered me slippers... in size 38!!! I politely declined and walked in with socks. Quietly cursing 🤬, of course. Nevertheless, the temple and the entire complex were very impressive and we even got to see the first cherry blossoms. It must be amazing when everything blooms here.

Afterwards, we walked again to the world-famous Fushimi Inari Shrine, which dates back to the year 794. You can climb the mountain through 1,000 red gates and enjoy a beautiful view over Kyoto. I think we managed about 95% today. The annoying thing is, when you have passed through almost all of the 1,000 red gates and don't want to spend your retirement on some sh*tty mountain in Kyoto, you have to walk back down, which increased from quietly cursing at the previous temple to me loudly complaining, and when we arrived at the bottom, I announced that I won't be walking a single step for the next 4 weeks. However, that was immediately retracted, because we still had to walk to the S-BAHN train station to get back to the hotel 😉.

And because we are now experienced in Japanese public transportation, we arrived at Kyoto Station in no time, where we took the opportunity to explore it properly for the first time. We realized that the entire station complex is not only a major transportation hub, but also a huge, incredibly huge shopping mall with department stores, countless designer shops, supermarkets, delicatessens, restaurants, theaters, and hotels. We chose one of the restaurants on the 10th floor and had Italian food with a view over the city and the Kyoto Tower in the evening.