After taking breakfast we said goodbye to Sotou Takahiko, a man in his late-fifties who shared our dorm last night. He was down from Tokyo for some convention or other, probably the Japanese equivalent of a campanologist society or leek-growing club, who knows?
Satou is a fine figure of a man, Raph is still half asleep
There was a mixed bag of activities on the programme today starting with a Zen Buddhist temple (Ryoan-ji), just four stops away on the bus (these temples seem to be getting closer by the day). No sooner had we paid our entrance fee than we were accosted by three students, Yuya, Hiroki and Ayaka, who asked if they could show us round the temple grounds. They were first-year students of English at the local university and were keen to show us their language skills. Of course, as obliging people, we allowed them to put themselves at our service and they related all the ins-and-outs of the buildings and the gardens. And – it goes without saying - at the end of it all, we had our pictures taken. Oh, how I love the friendly Japanese!
Ayaka, Hiroki, Raph, Andrew and Yuya at Ryoan-ji
Next up was Nijo-jo, the imperial castle at the heart of Kyoto. This involved a trek by bus across town. The castle grounds are so enormous, when we alighted we had to walk almost a kilometre in the blazing sun to find the entrance. One day, I’ll suss these local maps out. Nijo-jo seemed to have an outer wall and moat, and an inner wall and moat. Inside was the Ninomaru Palace, which seemed to consist of halls which served as endless waiting rooms for the feudal lords wishing to see their Shogun masters. There used to be a five-storey keep, but that had got burned down by lightning sometime in the distant past. A classic tale of Japanese castles: they never seemed to have mastered how to deter the hazard of fire from lighting strikes (perhaps by using stone instead of timber?)
Raph not enjoying the heat at the castle
It was so hot in the castle gardens, we decided to retreat to the Kyoto metro and head towards the Steam Locomotive Preservation Museum, 30 minutes away. I have been just so impressed by Japanese public transport, this seemed like a mandatory stop, as if to pay homage to Japanese foresight (pity about the lightning though). There was an even a display of UK preservation railways (and something about a partnership with the National Railway Museum in York). Railway buffs are the same worldwide. There was a real buzz of excitement as the exhibition train steamed in and out of the museum station.
A rail-addict's paradise
It was another trek across town to Fushimi Inari shrine in the south-eastern district of Kyoto. It was on the JR Nara line, so when we arrived on platform 8, we jumped on the train to Nara without realising this was the fast train, and didn't stop at Inari. Well, it's easy to make mistakes, but at least the mistakes are not expensive as we were now travelling on our JR passes. We doubled back from the next stop up the line and alighted at our destined halt, Inari.
The Fushimi Inari shrine is quite extraordinary. In fact, it seems to consist of countless number of mini-shrines which are linked by a hillside pathway lined with thousands of orange torii (these are the typical entrances to shrines). The 4-kilometre path wended its way uphill and then back down again, and by the end of it we were perspiring like proverbial porcine creatures.
We had worked hard by now, so it was our sole aim to find food and we did so by heading back into town and jumping on a bus to the central retail area (which was taking on Tokyo style proportions in terms so crowds). We retreated into a sushi bar and ordered meals, which allowed us time to rest our weary feet.
Fushimi Inari
Across the road was the Junkudo bookshop, rich pickings for a map-addict intent on finding local topographic maps (that is, if you can decipher the Japanese on the legend).
The fun wasn’t over for the day: we took the bus to Shijo-Omiya, which was the terminus for the 100-year old Keifuku electric railway, which would take us back to the youth hostel. These are one-carriage units which travel along lines which quite literally cut through back gardens.
The Keifuku railway
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