teamEggers

Kyoto [Part 6]

Boy, I was tired by this point.  We’ve been touristing non-stop for two days now. While fantastic and gratifying, it’s also exhausting!

Here are some random pictures of us!

oh! Quick! A tree in bloom! Stand by it!

The last stop of the day was a shrine that we were really looking forward to, but weren’t sure if we’d make it. It was on the opposite end of Kyoto and we had a 2.5 hour ride back home fast approaching. So we didn’t make it to the top (there was a 2.5 mile trail with thousands of torii (the red gate you see below).

This shrine was founded in 711. That’s the year seven hundred and eleven. It’s called Fushimi Inari-taisha, and is a place where merchants will often go to to pray for wealth. Maybe I’ll set up an Inari shrine in the back of Daisy Lane when I get home.

Foxes, who are thought of as messengers to the gods, are littered throughout the shrine.

After this we went back to the train station, bought some Kyoto-brewed beers and a few bento boxes so we could eat dinner on the train. I was sleepy.

I’m really happy we made it to Kyoto. It was a city genuinely steeped in history with a lot of knowledge to share. Despite the minor tragedy along the way, we had a good time.

Kyoto

Jon recently found out he’s “on call” this weekend and not working in the office!  This may not be that exciting to you, but it means that we get to take a long-awaited weekend trip to Kyoto!

Kyoto is the former capitol of Japan, about 2.5 hours away by bullet train.  Not only will it be exciting to see the city, which is supposed to ooze with history (it is one of the only majour cities in Japan that was not burned to the ground during warfare.  Most japanese buildings have been rebuilt.), but it’s cherry blossom season and we get to take the bullet train!

This is so awesome, for so many reasons.  Kyoto is one of the best places in the country to stay in a ryokan, or traditional Japanese style lodging.  They’re tremendously expensive but are supposed to be one of the best ways to “splurge” on your Japanese vacation. Everything is good, right? Because it’s cherry blossom season, we’re going on what will potentially be the most beautiful weekend of the year.

Good. Well.  We apparently are not the only ones with such high thoughts of Kyoto. Nearly every ryokan, hotel, and hostel is completely booked.  We can’t even find one of those cheap “back up plan” hotels.

For all that, we MAY have to sleep in the train station.