Kyoto...

Thursday, Sep 14: We took the Shinkansen for the 1 hour journey to Kyoto from the Shin-Osaka station. I was last there 30+ years ago, and recall almost nothing. Once there we visited the Mt. Inari shrine site where we walked up the mountain thru several hundred tori gates.

Tripadvisor.com readers really, really like this site!

Sometimes a selfie turns out OK.

Local businesses and people could sponsor a tori gate, and have them inscribed with a custom message.

These were left at some shrines, with visitor messages written on them, hoping for good luck or success.

Many visitors wore kimonos during their visit, and there were several places to rent them for the day.

My favorite shrine here at Mt. Inari.

We did not make it all the way up Mt. Inari, so we headed back to the Kyoto center, and then found our way to the market area; an almost 2 mile walk. We weren't quite ready to tackle the bus system just yet, so this gave us a chance to walk thru several neighborhoods. Even there, we encountered people wearing traditional garb.

A shop with custom, hand made left- and right-handed chef knives

...and hand-made kitchen utensils and special pots

This is a fresh wasabi root

A store selling only chopsticks

Another store selling only caligraphy brushes

A different kind of Happy Meal!

After the market, we noticed that the time was getting late, and we needed to get to the Golden Temple. Walking is out of the question, so we had to figure out the bus. Fortunately, there was a bus stop nearby. We hoped for the best. It was crowded, and as we got closer to our next stop, more and more people jammed in. The gent in the lower right was well dressed, and blind!

And success! We got to the temple before it closed for the day. As did hundreds of others!

After a short time touring the site, we decided on one more adventure, the bamboo forest walk. We boarded another bus that took us to the train station, and then took a train to an area just outside Kyoto. This was a bamboo farm, with pedestrian walkways. We arrived at dusk, but the trail was well lit.

Just outside the station, we found a Piano museum, but it was closed. Out front was an old steam locomotive along the pathway to the bamboo forest walk.

It got dark, and we still did not have lunch. Time to head back to Shin-Osaka and our hotel. At the station, I found a stand selling Liege style waffles; these are ones sold thruout Belgium. Surprisingly, they are made from a special ingredient. You may recognize the icon they chose for their logo. Not only did they taste very good, they were less expensive than the ones I bought in Brussels.

In the station, we found a restaurant to use for dinner. We chose a set meal that had 12 different items. Though we were filled, it was a grease-fest. So much fried food, and it wasn't very good.

The soup was good, though!

Well, back to the hotel!