Arashiyama & Fushimi-Inari Taisha

 We were up bright and early this morning to catch a ride to Arashiyama, an area on the outskirts of Kyoto known for a bamboo forest and some super scenic shrines. We first visited the Tenryu-ji temple, the landscaping of whose lake hasn't changed since the 1400s.

We sat soaking in the serene surroundings until we had worked up an appetite (for coffee) and headed off to find the fabled original % Arabica shop. We walked along the beautiful Katsura River to get there, but found the line laughably long and ended up sitting on the wall along the river and eating jell-o from 7-Eleven. 

We spent some time ambling through the adorable town of Arashiyama before heading back to the canal for lunch.

On a roll, we decided to pay a visit to Fushimi Inari Taisha, a mountainside shrine famous for featuring 10,000 bright orange torii gates in the side of the mountain!

The route features a number of resting points with shrines on the way, including Shin-ike Pond, Mitsu-tsuji, and Yotsu-tsuji, about 15 minutes apart each (depending on your walking speed). I picked the third of these (Yotsuji) to park myself and take a meeting while Udai summited Mt. Inari! (This was only 10 minutes beyond the last resting top, to be clear.) During his descent, he perched himself on some large boulders at the viewpoint I had stayed at, and pulled out something to read. Half an hour later, a crowd of 30-40 folks had silently assembled on boulders around the one where I now joined Udai, sitting in silent expectation of the sunset over Kyoto. 

We all sat between 4:30 and 5:30, as the sun finally set and we made our way back down. There, the main shrine greeted us, its upturned eaves now glowing magnificently in the dark.

また近いうちにお会いしましょう！