Kyoto and Mount Fuji

A Day in Kyoto

We had a full day in Kyoto and our guide took us out for the whole day. It turned into a hot day and I'm not convinced I had enough sun cream on as seem to now have a red neck.

The day involved lots of buses, subways and local trains. Then at the end Tattiana suggested us 4 sharing a taxi rather than walking and public transport. I didn't fully agree but think may have been a good idea now we're back an hour earlier than the others.

Our day had started at the Fushimi Inari Shrine. This is the Shrine with over 5000 orange Torii gates. We didn't have time to go round them all but must have walked under over a hundred. It was a great place and with the trees and sunlight coming through onto the gates it did look enchanted.

After this we visited the Golden Pavillon at the Kinakuji Temple. Pretty impressive with nice gardens to wander around.

After that we went to one last temple with some great gardens and used this as a short cut to the Bamboo Forest. Again the light coming through the Bamboo was a bit mystical, hopefully will look good on our pictures. The Bamboo forest is a safe place to go when an earthquake strikes but none for us.

It was a busy and hot day, also probably the day where there has been the biggest crowds as all the sights we visited were really popular. We guess being a Saturday in Golden Week probably made this worse. However it's never been too crowded to ruin our enjoyment or amazement at all we're seeing. Although I think for a while after Japan we will be templed out.

Aarrrrh, Mount Fuji

Our next trip was to Hakone with a chance to see Mount Fuji if the weather plays ball. The journey went well until the bus to the hotel, it should have been 1 hour but due to 2 crashes it extended to 2 & 1/2 hours.

Luckily for us a nearly cloudless sky gave us great views of Mount Fuji from the hotel we could even see it from our hotel room. These clear views continued as we took a ride on a Pirate Ship around Lake Ashi at Hakone National Park. It was busy as we got on the boat but at the stops and on the way back not too many crowds at all.

Don't eat the Green Stuff

In the evening we had a set meal of traditional Japanese food. This was delicious lot of food I would otherwise never tried. At this meal Tattiana struck again, initially she convinced herself and Liz to eat this green veg, they quickly spat it out as it was Wasabi which was meant to be grated and used sparingly!

Another dish arrived and the main waiter told someone not to eat a leaf, the guide confirmed don't eat this as just to wrap the other food in,Tattiana then asked what about if someone had already eaten it like she had! Lots of googling and it was then confirmed the leaf wasn't poisonous. Tattiana was at breakfast the next morning with no side effects.

I'm not sure what the group thought but as dinner tonight 2 Canadian ladies were surprised to find Liz was in her own room. They seemed to think we were sharing together. Matthew and his harem gossip.

Cable Cars and Rushed Connections

The next day we took the cable cars across the mountains another clear day and lots of great views. Due to Golden Week the train times had changed and we had a mad dash for one express train and some very annoyed looking conductors as we all made it on the train.

Group wise these last days have been much better, our guide has been more on the ball and we've got to know the other guests better and made connections. Still a couple of people still seem to act like it should revolve around their own private tour!