Day 5: Fushimi Inari Shrine & Byodoin Temple/Park (Kyoto)

30th March 2009

Kyoto used to be Japan's capital for few hundred years and still very traditional at now. There are so many places to see in Kyoto but since our time is quite limited, we only managed to cover few area. The weather still cold, around 10 degrees. We had breakfast bars and tea before going out (breakfast not included in our stay at this guest house) and pushed off from Kazariya around 12PM to Fushimi Inari Shrine.

The route: Gojo - Kyoto - Inari - Few mins walking to this shrine
Admission: Free

Fushimi Inari Shrine is a Shinto shrine, dedicated to Inari (the God of rice, sake and prosperity). It is also well known for its orangey gates and foxes statue. The fox is like the guardian to their shrine.

MrComot in front of the big orange gate. See the policeman behind with the STOPPPP sign? Haha he tried to stop us for taking picture because there is a car wanted to reverse and we don't understand what he saying. Nasib baik we saw the car.

There are orange pillars everywhere and built climbing the hill. We didn't cover the whole area though as it is too big! Since it is surrounded with hill trees, I think the scenery will be at its best during the autumn.

Me among the pillars. Each pillar is written with different words. Maybe it's the prayer or simply historical. I'm not very sure.

Wording in Katakana and Kanji. Anyone can read this?

The local praying. They will ring up the bell by pulling those ribbons/ropes

MrComot with the guardian fox

Most of the shrine/temple also selling charms with very specific purpose such as, good luck for work, good luck while driving, good luck for taking trains, and good luck for love.

The fox prayers. You can buy this piece of wooden-fox-face, draw the face and write your wish behind.

We had our lunch at some local restaurant (more like a village area) and as usual, tak pandai tapi buat-buat pandai kan haha. We saw this one restaurant got vegetables drawing so redah saja lah, and yes, it is a vegetarian shop *phewww*

The ambience. You can either sit on normal (western) type seats, or the traditional - on a bench with cushions.

Also our staple - donbori (rice + eggs + kikkoman + seaweed + pickles)

Their authentic pepper shaker only it isn't pepper. It stores some kind of spices and I dare not to try it.

Rice with ebi and vegetables tempura. Really tasty but they sprinkle it with some spices that I think I am allergic to because my mouth feels numb and widened after that. Thank God it gone after I finished eating.

In front of the shop

Grilled unagi. One of their specialty but we didn't take it as MrComot takot ok nak makan belut. He said it reminds him of snake *sigh*. I was so tempted to try this but I'm afraid I can't finish it all.

The small community in Fushimi Inari

After satisfying the stomach, we continue our journey to Byodoin Temple.

The route: Inari - Uji (about 6 stations/stops) - walk 800m to Byodoin Temple
Admission: 600 yen

Byodoin Temple is built to revive Buddhism in Japan but not successful. The temple is at the centre of the park with small lake. There is also Phoenix Hall (you have to buy additional ticket to enter at 500 yen), unfortunately the tickets are sold out that day (we reached quite late btw, around 4PM) so we have to miss it. Phoenix Hall only can fit 50 pax at one time/schedule. So if you want to go to this temple, make it in the morning.

The temple is at the back

This is how Sakura budding looks like

One of the view. The park setting is very nice and I really recommend this place.

A full bloom tree

Another view of the park

The best view. It's very serene and give you a sense of calmness

Another type of Sakura. The petals are bigger and in bright pink. We found only one tree of this.

It may look hot but it's not. Yes, the sun is firing its fire but the wind still wins.

In front of the temple

Oh ya, we also visit the Byodoin Muzeum but can't take pictures inside :( The museum close at 5PM. Do visit this museum as it is veryyyyyy coool!! They have Buddha figures carved on stones with varies of characters, including the phoenix of fire. It's really beautiful and artistic. I bought a postcard showing inside of the museum, will snap it and update in later entry.

On the way back we saw a woman cycling with heels! And I think it's 5" heels! Or maybe 3". You can click on the picture for larger version.

Cycling doesn't stop me being fashionista (^_^)v

We left around 530PM and planned to go to Gion but it's quite late and will take some times to reach there, so we back to Gojo, had dinner during our stop in Kyoto station.

Kyoto station has numerous of eatineries and here you can see a bit civilization (haha, I mean western thing) where you starting to see coffee shops, Italian shops, etc but the traditional shops selling donbori and sushi still dominating.

So after days eating rice and eggs, we had a 'proper' dinner that night in an Italian shop.

Cappriciosa

Anyway, finding food still not an easy task for us. Even in Italian shops they do serve pork. Only this shops doesn't have 'direct' pork (as they have dish like 'with bacon bits' and pretty sure it is pork bacon) but at least it's not a cutlet.

Seafood pasta in tomato sauce

Pizza with anchovies, olive and cheese topping

This lemon tea is complimentary. Even though it's free, they serve it properly, siap with sliced lemon, not the instant lemon tea.

And it only costs us 2200 yen (RM84), food only no drink (they give free iced water). Even though it's not that cheap, but I find it cheaper than traditional food as normal serving of donbori and soba for 2 will cost us around 3000 yen and it's only rice and eggs!!

Since it's still early, we had a detour in Kyoto station. They have a HUGE underground mall owned by Isetan and it's 10-floors mall!

I'm trying to snap the never-end escalator. 10-storeys Isetan okkkk!

Btw, most of the brands carried are designers like Burberry, CK, LV, etc and the cheapest shirt with brand that I don't recognize is RM120 after sale! I also checked their cosmetic range, still a bit higher than in Malaysia after conversion. So, I don't buy any :D