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.
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.
