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Kyoto Megapost 3 Photos

Kyoto Day 2 – Tuesday 21st November

Another early start to visit a place that has been on my bucket list for a while – Fushimi Inari-taisha. It is one of the biggest temples in Japan and known for its long paths lines with numerous, vermillion torii gates. The reason we decided to go early is that, even on non-peak days (such as a random Tuesday in November), the shrine gets packed. Fun fact number one, the messengers of the Goddess Inari are foxes (kitsune). Fun fact number two, foxes are my favourite animal. Those of you who know me probably realize it was like a moth drawn to a flame, except the moth is hella excitable and the flame is a massive Shinto shrine with foxes everywhere.

 But I digress. At the base of the shrine it was pretty crowded but having done my research we headed up quickly and soon left the crowds behind and more or less had the place to ourselves as we took a nice, quiet, leisurely walk to the top. Fushimi Inari-taisha is really breathtaking. Every so often you come across a small shrine surrounded by smaller shrines covered in mini torii gates, a veritable Koch Snowflake of shrines. I made my prayer at the very top. I also taught some American tourists how to pray properly (the student has now become the master E!). Another peaceful walk down until about halfway where, we found a log jam of people in the torii gates. We really pulled the right move getting there early, none of the lovely shots I took alone would have been possible had we been an hour later.

 We decided to walk back to Higashiyama Ward as it was still pretty early and we had plenty of time. On the way we stopped at the Little Dragon Café where Steve sampled the delights of omurice and I had some ginger pork thing. The waitress was so ancient I thought she’d keel over as she was bussing tables by herself and more people kept coming in so not as relaxing a lunch as it could have been! Hunger sated, we continued on deciding just to wander around and stopping in many cafes as it was bloody cold! Part of this was because we had decided to go to a show at Gion Corner that included various forms of traditional Japanese entertainment including a Maiko dance. Maiko are apprentice geisha and as the tickets were surprisingly easy to obtain (you just had to be there at 5.30pm to buy tickets for a 6pm show) there was no way in heck I was missing out! Once again, Steve proved his patience by acquiescing to my request that we get there at 5pm so we would be front of the queue. We ended up front row, centre! It was glorious, I even got chosen to take part in the tea ceremony *insert sparkly eyes*. Other parts of the show included a very amusing play about a lord trying to stop his servants drink his sake and a puppet that was controlled by three people. The Maiko Dance was lovely; oddly I couldn’t get over how small her hands were. It was probably because she moved them so delicately.

Maiko are the apprentices of traditional geisha, and dressed in kimono with traditional hair and makeup, they dance and perform music for their guests.

Beautiful right?

Now, would you like to see a maiko perform during your visit in Kyoto?

Well you can, but it usually costs a fortune. (around 100,000JPY :( )

But not to worry! 

For those of you traveling on a budget, you can go to Gion Corner to see an hour-long show of maiko dances, tea ceremonies, koto playing, and several more traditional Japanese performances for just 3,150JPY!

(English site here: http://www.kyoto-gioncorner.com/global/en.html)

Ask us at reception to find out more about the shows :)

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Happy traveling,