Fushimi Inari Shrine

Our first full day in Kyoto started off with mystery breakfast! The several of us who chose this particular ryokan were shown into a side room on the ground floor after we had woken up. And inside we found... food.

Toast and apples!

This is basically the only toast that I had during the entire trip (yes, I went 2.5 months almost completely without toast) so I was naturally pretty excited.

Me showing off the toaster that the nice old man brought.

There was also coffee.

We began our sightseeing for that day with a trip to the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine. This shrine is well known in Japan for its great red torii gates.

Candiece shows off a gate.

Oh yes, we also had those other creeps with us.

Well this shrine isn't just know for *having* torii gates. It is know for having a *lot* of torii gates. The greatest concentration of them anywhere on the planet in fact. These gates are laid out along a path forming a tunnel. Walking under them is supposed to bring you good fortune!

The beginning of the tunnel.

At one point the path splits into two (a sign says that it is fine to proceed up either side of the path) and we decided to go up one way and down the other so as to pass through as many gates as possible.

Liz trying to decide which way to go.

Inside the tunnel of gates.

Beware of Americans on the path.

Candiece made it out first.

We found one of those places for ritual hand washing.

Then we discovered that we had not in fact reached the end of the tunnel of gates. We were just at a little resting spot. Candiece and Liz went straight for the next stretch of gates where they proceeded to execute some wicked dance moves.

Yeah.

We continued down (or up?) the path and eventually found some very small gates...

I wonder if they count these in the total number of gates.

Candiece broke out some more dance moves.

At this point we saw a path leading away from the path of gates and into a bamboo forest! So we abandoned the typical tourist route and went off into the forest!

Candiece looking cute.

Bamboo and Pine.

Evan and Liz trying to ditch us.

Whitney being a creeper.

Evan discovers his true calling: mining "curry dirt".

Not entirely sure what this logo was from...

Bamboo Forest!

Then we headed back down the path to the train station. There we made friends with a very cute shiba!

Shiba!

Then we made our way to byodo-in, also known as the phoenix temple. This temple was originally not a temple, but a noble's awesome vacation crib. It is on a little island in the middle of a large pond.

The temple.