Oh Deer! It's bloody cold

Today was an early start as we had a great deal to explore including a trip over in Nara. So we set out for the station around 8:30 to firstly get a JR train to Kyoto's most visited shrine, Fushimi Inari. This is a must even if you're not a massive fan of temples and shrines as it's unique and FREE!!!! On top of that it is also very beautiful especially on a nice day.

We knew immediately that this was going to be busy even at 9am and the flood of people also getting off our train confirmed that. At the entrance of the shrine was the very large bright orange torii in front of the Romon gate and a short walk leads you to the shrine itself. In my opinion the shrine itself isn't particularly spectacular especially if you've seen others in Kyoto already but just behind it is torii gate hiking trail.

There are two dense, parallel rows of gates called Senbon Torii ("thousands of torii gates") one marked for the way up and one for the way back. There were lots of tourists around the early section even at this time in the morning, we struggled to take pictures without someone else getting in shot BUT.... we'd spotted that the way down was really empty it was only a 5 minute walk up so we went back down and got ALL THE BEST PICTURES before going back up to continue the trail.

The torii from this point on weren't as densely packed and varied in size, we latter found out that companies donated the gates and have their name and date inscribed on them, nothing like a bit of advertising to remind us of our world today.

The walk led up to the mountain summit providing plenty of opportunies to turn back, making it accessible for most. When you reach about halfway there is a viewpoint giving spectacular views over Kyoto (I'd assume most people reach here and turn back). There is a further circular path to ascend to the summit which takes around 30 minutes which you really don't need to do as you've probably seen enough torii by now but if you fancy the walk through the woods and a little hike up then go for it!

On the way back you can skip out some of the sections that we covered earlier meaning we didn't get swarmed by the crowd too much (as it was MUCH BUSIER). It didn't take us long from summit back down as we weren't trying to find the perfect picture to put on Instagram..... The route took us about 2 hours but it could have easily taken longer with more people around. 

Back on the train bound for Nara we were filled with anticipation as we'd heard from a couple of friends that it was one of the highlights of their trip, we were not disappointed.

After a quick stop at the supermarket, grabbing food for a picnic. We headed about 1km to Nara Park, home to the hundreds of bowing deer. They've learnt this neat trick from the visitors feeding them over the years... And it definitely works.

At the entrance to Nara Park there is a temple Kōfuku-ji which is free to roam around and admire the pagoda but this wasn't the main reason we visited so after stopping a few times to watch others feed, pet and take pictures of the deer. A local Japanese gentleman gave us some acorns to finally feed the deer!! They seemed to go "nuts" for these and found a special affinity for Laura's coat which they seemed to think was yet more food.

We decided to look after numero uno before we continued to feed the deer and spend time admiring the very tame deer and headed right (south section of the park) behind the Nara National Musuem. It might have looked like a warm day but it certainly wasn't and it was bloody freezing, a pinic now didn't seem to be a sensible move! We found some shelter and shivered through lunch. We explored the south section of the park, we found it to be a pleasant section with a lake and pavilion with plenty of deer chilling.

As we had a fair bit of time of our hands as we weren't going to make it back to Kyoto to visit another temple. We decided to explore the grounds of Kasuga Taisha Shrine whose approach is lined with hundreds of stone lanterns (with a couple of deer popping up here or there). The shrine is famous of the decorative bronze lanterns hung all around the interior which can be seen at a distance for free, to see them up close there is a paid inner section, I don't believe it's necessary to pay as it's latterns could be admired from outside.

Next up was a 20 min walk to the North of Nara Park to Tōdai-ji home to the largest bronze Buddha in not only Japan but the world and consequently the world's large wooden building!!! As we approached Tōdai-ji we passed Nigatsu-do a pretty temple on the hill where we were able to overlook the enormous wooden structure.

Entrance to the grounds are free but to see the main attraction it cost 1000 yen (£7) but was well worth the money to see something very unique to not only Japan but the world. The Budda is 15m high and is really a sight to behold, even the smaller Buddha seated to the left and right are impressive but this statue dwarfs them both.

On our leisurely walk out of the park we finally used the deer crackers purchased earlier in the day and see if yet again we could make the deer bow it was still very cute. Although once those deer see that you have food.... Many more come over and all try to get in on the action... Again Laura's cost took the brunt of the encounter.

I would highly recommend a least half a day over here to see and do everything and enjoy the time with the deer, and given it only takes about 1 hour from Kyoto station, it's well worth the visit.

That evening we met up with a couple of friends (Jill & Dave) who happened to be in Japan at the same time as us but doing a slightly different route, close to their hotel. We had some great food, drink and catch-up about our experiences so far at a little place called Hot & Spicy. 

Oh look another temple in Kyoto

There's so much to choose from in Kyoto that after a day we felt like we'd visited so many temples and shrines around the city but we had barely started as they are really are everywhere and this isn't an exaggeration!

We decided to mix it up a bit and visited Nijo castle for ¥1000 each, the gardens are really nice & the castle has lots of original features, however to preserve the interior designs of each room you're not allowed to take pictures! I'd say it's worth a visit.
We then walked for about 30mins to the palace which is free to go in, the grounds are so big we couldn't work out where the entrance was. When we finally made it inside it was pretty quite so we got some good pictures of the buildings which are pretty impressive. You can tell it was the former ruling palace of the Emperor of Japan as it's so grand.

So that was our morning walk done, we then got a subway down to Kyoto station it cost us just ¥500 (£3.50) we then took a JR train across to Saga Arashiyama Station the whole journey took about 1 hour.

It's really easy to follow the crowds from the station and it takes about 10mins to reach the entrance for Tenryuri Temple. It costs ¥500 to go in the gardens and an extra ¥300 each to go into the buildings we did both. The Japanese Zen Gardens are really beautiful and you can see why it's a world heritage site. The interior is plain and open so the gardens nicely frame the landscape as a backdrop instead of lots of artistic designs inside the rooms.

You can meander up through the gardens to exit at the start of the uphill walk through the bamboo forest. As expected it was pretty busy even at 3pm!

We then decided to take the 30-40 minute walk to see the houses it was really quiet walking there and many of the shops were closing up but we got some good pictures and it was a nice stroll.

On our way back we just had enough time to visit Jojakkoji Temple I really liked this one there were fewer buildings but the zen garden was great it kept talking you up steps to different views of the town below.

We finished the day with a walk back down through the bamboo trees and along to the famous Togestsukyo Bridge, if you walk across the bridge there's a sweet shop which has loads of free samples which were needed after a really long day of walking and site seeing.

For dinner we found a tapas restaurant which was open later than a lot of restaurants and the lamb chops and beef were really tasty with a nice glass or two of red wine.

Key-o-toe

Morning! Today was our first full day in Kyoto and as we found a free waking tour the night before we headed the 2km over to the Statue of Izumo-no-Okuni to met our guide for the morning, Dominic.

It was interesting learning about the Kabuki and the importance of Okuni to the classic Japanese dance/drama performance which eventually led to women being banned (even to this day!!!) in performing it in official theatres.

The walk led us through the Higashiyama area of the city which famous for its Geisha district, here we got to learn a little more about the Geisha and Maiko, their education and strict lifestyle.

We saw the theatre where the Maiko normally perform and their school, Kyoto itself has around 300 Geisha and it was staggering to learn how much money they can make for a an evening in a tea house. It's not for everyone though as it's a very tough profession taking 5 years of true dedication to pay back all debts owed for costumes, hair, board and lodging. Seems like way too much effort if you ask me.... The cost to see them perform privately in a teahouse for 2-3 hours would cost over the £1000 mark.

Next was a quick stop in the grounds of Kennin-ji where Dominic explained about the tea ceremony (which we were lucky enough to experience earlier in Kanazawa). The walking tour continued to a little temple, Yasaka Koshindo Temple (full name is Daikoku-san Kongo-ji Koshin-do). It is now famous for its fabric monkeys that are hung around, giving it a colourful, intragram-esc, appeal. Apparently if you give up one of your bad habits, tie it up in the monkey your wish will come true...  I don't think they have enough monkeys for me!

On our approach to the monkey temple we saw Hōkanji Temple (Yasaka-no-Tou) which is a 46 metre high pagoda (tower) which looks overlooks the Higashiyama District and is so close to all the traditional houses.

Our final stop on the walking tour took us to Yasaka-jinja Shrine when the gods must have been angry at us as the heavens opened so we temporarily found shelter before rejoining the group to see how the Buddhists perform a purification ritual. 

NEED FOOD!! After consulting Dominic we walked a few hundred metres from the Shrine to one of his favourite Ramen restaurants. It was our first taste of Ramen and certainly wouldn't be our last as it was delicious and relatively inexpensive.

Having recharged our batteries we planned to visit a few temples which we'd researched as Kyoto has over 1600 temples so you got to be a little picky with limited time.

-  Shōren-in Monzeki Temple

This temple is a rarely visited retreat on the main Southern Higashiyama tourist route and has a superb garden giving very picturesque shots from the temple itself.

- Heian Shrine

This temple was a little walk away from Shōren-in. It is a colourful shrine with vast gardens (although we didn't go in the gardens as you have to pay and we didn't have time)

- Nanzenji Temple

We now had to walk back on ourselves a little to reach this temple but it has it all: expansive grounds, a fine kare-sansui (dry landscape) garden, intimate subtemples and soaring halls. Its also the start/end of the Philosophers Walk.

- Jisho-ji (commonly known as Ginkaku-ji - Temple of the Silver Pavillion) 

We took the Philosophers Walk from Nanzenji on this trail of about 2km following a small stream and stopped of at a couple of smaller temples on route, Reisen-dori and Hōnen-in Temple. Unfortunately though we didn't make the Ginkaku-ji (Temple of the silver pavilion) as it closed at 5pm like most temples. Again... To ambitious to get to every temple and do a walking tour in one day! Our feet were a little tired so we caught the bus back to our apartment it would have been another 6km and we didn't fancy it!

In the evening we tried a restaurant that served okonomiyaki a popular dish in there area which is a type of Japanese pancake / omelette which was heated on the hot plate on our table. It was definitely different and topped with Worcestershire sauce (but I'm not the biggest fan of eggs).

After eating like a local we decided to drink like one and proceeded to a sake bar(JAM + SAKE) and both tried three different samples which were all subtlety different, the blossom flavoured one was a little too floral for our palettes.

Nagoya

Wet, wet, wet... .Nagoya
The plan for today was to go on a walk from Magome to Tsumago, it was a 6 hour round trip. After reading all the other blogs we decided that although it was something we really wanted to do before arriving in Japan we'd already seen loads of traditional houses in Kanazawa, Shirakawa-go, Hida and Takyama so we would give it a miss.

Here's the schedule as we'd already worked it out we wanted to share it incase anyone wants to go!

Travel times
09:24 - 10:39 Nagoya to Nakatsugawa
11:15 - 11:40 Nakatsugawa to Magome
2:09 - 2:18 Tsumago to Nagisa or
2:22 - 2:50 Tsumago to Magome
2:42 - 3:14 Nagisa to Nakatsugawa or
2:50 - 3:15 Magone to Nakatsugawa
3:20 - 4:35 Nakatsugawa to Nagoya
5:01 - 5:35 Nagoya to Kyoto

The weather forecast was for rain so we decided to spend the day in Nagoya. First we visited Nayago Castle & Palace for ¥500 each (£3.50) but we couldn't go into the castle as it's being renovated, instead we went into the Palace which was re-built in 2018! The building hasn't weathered yet and it looks a little strange. The interior has been carefully designed to match the images/photos/drawings of 400 years ago and these decorations are outstanding but at the minute they are digital copies which they plan to replace with originals in 10 years time!

We then made our way down to the science museum passing the oldest TV & radio tower in Japan. Unfortunately the park/walk in the middle of the road was closed as was the tower so we couldn't go up to the viewing decks. However the modern bus station has a viewing platform which is where we took this picture from, it was pretty wet and slippery up there but it's a really cool structure!

The science museum itself is really interactive although nothing is in English it's a good option for a rainy day. The planetarium was good but again it was all in Japanese and went on for 50 mins. We both had a few cat naps but didn't start snoring like someone close by!

We then took a train to Kyoto during rush hour, the station was really busy so we thought we would book onto a train, but for some reason they could only book us on a slow train that was leaving after the next one so we thought we'd try and see how busy the non reserved coach was and there was lots of room so we went for it. Our Airbnb host had given us amazing instructions on how to get to the property by bus which was so easy. You get on at the back doors and then pay when you get off at the front. Try to have the correct change with you it's ¥230 for a single journey or you can get a day pass. The best thing is if you are unsure on the stops they are shown on a screen on the bus so there's no need to worry about missing your stop.

After checking in we did some TripAdvisor searching for food, there are so many really small independent restaurants it's hard to choose but the main thing to note is that most stop serving by 9pm. We picked a noodle place which was really good. 

The British Tourists

We started St George's day (or the more appropriately named, day after Ben's birthday) with a relaxing Onsen experience in the Ryoken. As they switch the male and female baths each day we got a different experience to yesterday, this time we both had them to ourselves for the whole time which meant we didn't have to avoid eye contact with other naked people... It was EXTERMELY hot though and I believe any weight I put on from the gorgeous meal last night was lost through sweat!!!

At 9:00am we were down for Japanese breakfast which provided a mountain of food.... when you thought you were done they only brought out a stew and dessert! As we both don't normally do breakfast it was a struggle but we powered on like good honest British folk and ate almost all of it... some of the key dishes were:

Grilled fish (something like a mackerel)
Grilled miso paste with mushrooms and other veg (this was AMAZING)
Tofu with miso
Etc.... as you can see a ridiculous amount of food

We left the Ryoken shortly after to take a short train journey back to Takeyama, this time to do the touristy stuff.

Our first stop in Takayama was to Takayama Jinya an old local government building in the region due to the importance of timber to the shogun. Similar to many of the tourist attractions we'd been to so far it was well priced at only ¥500 (just over £3) or less than a medium sized beer. Although rather sparse inside it was still an impressive building and it housed one of the largest traditional rice storehouses.

After exiting we were reasonably close to the old town in particular Sannomachi Street where all the traditional houses have been well preserved... but with a fair few now transformed to shops... you guessed it... TOURISTS!!

Once we'd survived the tourist apocalypse we headed towards Yatai Kaikan (the float exhibition hall) where we saw 4 of the impressive autumn floats used during the Takeyama festival that occurs bi-yearly, spring and autumn. We were gutted that we missed the Spring festival by a few days as it looks like a cracking festival.

In Hida earlier we'd picked up a map that suggested a couple of walks covering Kitayama Park, Ayuzaki Castle Ruins and the Higashiyama Walking Course. The first of which was a short climb giving views over Takayama but if you don't have the time then you won't be missing out but it was an opportunity to stretch the legs away from the crowds and only took about 45 min.

The second walk had much more to offer although if you are all templed out from Kyoto or Tokyo then it doesn't offer anything unique but as we hadn't seen to many temples as yet we quite enjoyed the experience of being quickly move from one temple to the next and it was very well signed so you won't get lost. After we finished temple hopping, the route takes you through the back of Shiroyama Park to the castle ruins (there isn't much to see). We skipped a little bit out for time reasons as we needed to catch a train but it seems that if you want a good walk then it should be easy enough to complete but don't think you need to do this part of the walk as it's through a largely wood area.

We returned to Takayama Station to take the JR train (not the bullet this time unfortunately) through the scenic countryside to continue our adventures in Nagoya.

Shirakawa-go see blosom trees

This World Heritage site is well worth a visit, the thatched roofed houses are really beautifully maintained and the place has a calm and relaxing feel - even with loads of tourists.

We arrived from Kanazawa at 10:30 earlier than we wanted, as the later buses were fully booked. WARNING its worth noting that there were spaces on the busses but not sat together as you can not book a female seat next to a male you are not travelling with, so book early as we did leave it a bit late.

When we arrived, we headed right out of the bus station to avoid the standard tourist route and walked up the 61 steps to the view point overlooking Shirakawa-go and giving great views of the mountains in the distance.

We went in the Wada-ke house which cost ¥300 each and we braved the tea again - it was much sweeter than the green tea in the geisha house in Kanazawa, a real comfort that it's made from wild grass and boiled in the iron kettle on the fireplace - yummy! It was Ben's birthday so the dated photo was a bonus.

We didn't stop for any food but there are a few restaurants if you wanted lunch or dinner and there are huts serving ice cream and takeaway foods. We covered the whole area and took a walk over the bridge to the other side where there is an open museum that costs ¥600 per person but we didn't have the time to go in.

We stayed for 3 hours as we were booked onto the 13:30 bus to Takyama but found out there were also unreserved buses at different times. However 3 hours was about right as we sauntered along the village roads.

To carry on the celebrations I booked us in to Yatsusankan Ryokan in Hida just outside Takyama. We arrived about 4pm, checked in and walked around Hida then we took advantage of the hot spring baths before an amazing dinner in our own dinning room, the number of courses was insane, so many little tasty dishes that were full of flavour, I can guarantee a food comer! It was a bonus that the cherry blossoms were out so they took us on a 10 min bus tour to see them lit up - it was well worth it!