We took a bullet train to Kyoto. It took us two trains and a 25 minute drive to get there. For info, in Japan these trains leave every 90 seconds and boy are they on time. Not like VIA Rail here in Ontario………..they leave whenever they want lol But that is mostly because they rent the rails from CN or CP and so their trains have priority and sometimes, well a lot of times, VIA is delayed because of that. But…. moving on…..after we checked into our hotel we headed to Nijo Castle. This castle was built in 1603 as the home of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period (1603-1868)
Shingo, our guide, took us on a walk through the Geisha District in Kyoto. I thought we would see actual Geishas but nope, nary a one was out and about. It was a very pleasant walk though and we still saw lots. We went to an outdoor mall area as well and it’s so interesting to see everything they have for sale.
Along the river and so many people were gathered there to listen to music, eat, drink 
The Geisha Walk 
Cat on a Fiddle? 
Kyoto Brewery 
Huge outdoor shopping mall 
Our lunch 
Famous Kobe Beef 
Fish Sticks 
One morning we got up at 5 and left at 530 to go visit the 10,000 shrines. It was probably an hour travel to get there and we wanted to beat the crowds because believe me, these places fill up with people fast. This was one of my favourite stops, I really enjoyed walking here. I thought they had a lot of dog statues but apparently they are foxes, called kitsune and they are the holy messengers of Inari, the Shinto god of rice, agriculture, and business prosperity. We also walked another path to see some rice paddies and learn all about rice and how they plant it and harvest it.
The foxes, called kitsune, are the holy messengers of Inari, the Shinto god of rice, agriculture, and business prosperity. 
Clint on the walkway 
This was such a beautiful and colourful walkway that went on for a very long time (4 kms) 
There were a lot of fox statues and they were all wearing little red bibs 
Rice paddies
Clint and I had almost a full day in Kyoto to ourselves so off we went. Here are some of the places we went to.
Random photo of their subway station, very clean 
Same river from our evening walk but no people as it’s earlier in the day 
They love their little dogs, all sorts of dog clothing stores and dog cafes 
I just like weird stuff, I guess they are selling these clothes for humans? 
Nope 
Another nope 
Hard pass 
Lots of narrow alleys 
They had lots of knife shops to purchase knives for the kitchen 
Some of the alleys were so crowded 
Clint at Stoneheads brewery 
Cute taps 
Interesting
After Kyoto, we were off to Mt Fuji but the weather did not cooperate for us !
Trums Travels 
Such a lovely culture! I agree on the Nope and Hard Pass on the food, guys. Sea Urchin? Yikes! The bullet train must have been very scary, going that fast on rails is not attractive to me. I have a lot of respect for the Japanese culture. ❤️
LikeLike