December 10th, 2023

Day 7

Today is my third day at Kyoto! When I met Brainen on the train on Day 3, he recommended that I go visit the “Fushimi” at 8 o’clock where there are no tourists. He was talking about the Fushimi Inari Daiji, a very majestic Shinto temple that has the famous “Senpon Torii”, the Japanese shrine sticks that was all over the mountain. In fact, the first one, and the biggest Torii that stands in front of the shrine was donated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi himself.

So here’s a little background. These Torii that stands on the trail that leads to the mountains are all tributes that either individuals or companies donated to the shrine. On one side of the Torii, it only has two characters that means “tribute”, and on the back, it was engraved with when it was donated and who it was donated from. Most Torii that I saw were from Heisei times, the time period immediately preceding Reiwa times, the emperor, now. I’ve seen some Showa ones too, and saw one from Meiji. Basically, the ones from Meiji (Meiji Isshin) and Daisho, the emperor after Meiji, were all made in stone. The ones in Showa and so on are all made from wood and painted in bright orange; but those fade pretty fast, so the older the Torii is, the more “faded red” that it looks to be. That’s why from the pictures, the Senpon Torii looked like they were all red.

List of Japanese Emperors and their time period from Meiji:

1. Meiji (1868-1912)

2. Daisho (1912-1926)

3. Showa (1926-1989)

4. Heisei (1989-2019)

5. Reiwa (2019-now)

Should’ve made the list before all those jibber jabber trying to explain Japan’s emperor periods.

Anyways, I left my luggage at the hotel front desk, and took the metro to the Fushimi Inari Daisha. Brainen did mention that I must be there as early as possible to avoid the hoards of tourists that will eventually ruin every shot that you take, so I took his advise and went to the subway station as soon as possible.

When I got there, there really wasn’t that many people. Still, there were some people getting in, and I was getting a bit worried that they will ruin most of my shots.

This is the supposed Torii that was donated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi himself. Remember the amount of people in this picture. It will get so much worse at noon. I didn’t pray, and went to the Senpon Torii immediately, knowing full well that I will come back down to pray so might as well go to the more popular attraction first before most other tourists gets here.

Here are all the picture that I took at the beginning of Senpon Torii’s trail. This is by far the most popular area of Fushimi Inari. Since it is the entrance, most people come here to take pictures instead of going deeper and higher up the mountains. So I couldn’t get some shots that I wanted to have 0 other people in it.

Here are all the pictures that I took at and before reaching the half way point. There is a temple there, and the ascension wasn’t that terrible. There was a dragon head statue that you can touch to improve your luck. And so I did.

From this point forward, I learned that to keep exploring, I will need to climb up a mountain, again. I struggled with this decision, since I was soooo tired from yesterday, but then I manned up and decided to stfu and just do it.

From the temple, it’s all the way up to the summit. There is a platform at the half way point between the temple and the summit where there is a restaurant where you can look down and see the city, and that’s where a lot of people choose to be their final destination. I pushed myself forward and pressed on forward.

Climbing up was very challenging, especially since I not only didn’t eat breakfast, I was still recovering from yesterday. I had to constantly take a rest while climbing up, so I wasn’t too terribly panting like I did when I scaled the Onsenji’s mountain on Day 4. After a while, and seeing a couple of interesting Torii along the way, I finally reached the summit.

There is a shrine on the top of the mountain, and since I climbed all the way up here, I was definitely going to pray.

After praying, I started to descend. The descend wasn’t all that interesting since I’ve taken enough pictures and have seen enough Toriis along the way. Although, I must say, it is much easier descending than ascending. I know it’s common sense, but when you actually do it yourself, you’ll feel the same way.

When I got to the platform that most people set as their final destination, I saw that the restaurant over there sells ice cream. I ordered a soy and vanilla mix ice cream. It wasn’t shabby.

Dish Verdict: ★★★☆☆

I’ve also heard about that Mt. Inari has its famous Inari Udon and Inari Sushi, so once I have devoured my ice cream, I went into the restaurant and ordered their Inari Udon + Sushi set.

The Udon, what can I say, is just Udon. Doesn’t feel any more special than the Udon that I can cook at home.

Dish Verdict: ★★★☆☆

The sushi, though, is pretty good. I’m not sure what is the material used for the outer skin, but the rice, with the vinegar and sugar added for flavor, was very delicious.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

Restaurant Verdict:

★★★★☆

This is the view of the city from the vantage point.

When I was walking down, I saw a giant Kan-on statue that has a very long bead connecting to her hand (Kan-on doesn’t have a sexuality, she just chooses to look like a female to be more approachable). When you make a donation, you then wash your hands with the water, grab onto the bead and make your wish. That was rather interesting.

When I finally got down to the entrance, I was both surprised and unsurprised by the amount of people there. I was unsurprised because I was forewarned by Brainen with how much people there will be, and I’ve seen how many people were there at Kiyomizudera; but I was still surprised because, it’s still so many people.

At one of the buildings, there was a ritual going on. I’m not exactly sure if it was purely for show or if it was an actual ritual, because it was open to the public to see; but there were guests that were allowed to sit inside the building while the public has to see from the side. I’m probably gonna categorize this thing as an actual ritual. Real cool.

Fushimi Inari Daisha Verdict:

★★★★★

Next up, Tofukuji. Based on Japan-guide.com, there were two choices, Tofukuji and Daigoji. They were basically the same, so I picked Tofukuji. Went there by the bus, or metro. I wasn’t too interested by Tofukuji for three reasons.

1. I’ve seen enough temples for now to feel numb about temples in general.

2. It is like most other temples I’ve seen as of now, defunct, and is mostly for the attraction factor.

3. The main attraction of Tofukuji is its Japanese garden with crazy good looking red leaves. I am not the best nature lover anyways, plus the leaves were like 90% gone when I got to Japan. BORING.

So after I took some pictures and walked around the area that asks for admission fee, I left, didn’t explore the inner temple.

Tofukuji Verdict:

★★★☆☆

The next destination, though, got me the most excited. It is the Nijo-jo, or Tokugawa Shogunate Residence, the official residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu and his descendants who were the de facto ruler of Japan. I was always fascinated by this part of Japanese history, where the Shogun doesn’t kill the Emperor and become the emperor himself, but still let the emperor be the puppet emperor while the shogun himself just rules as shogun. Japan was under Shogunate rule until Meiji Isshin, for a very long time.

In Chinese history, this has rarely happened. The “betrayer” always becomes the emperor, with the rare exception of “Cao Cao”, who still kept the Han Emperor as his puppet while he became the de facto ruler. I believe this is where Tokugawa Ieyasu got his idea, though.

The entire residence was very big, with some rooms closed off for maintenance, which was a damn shame. Pictures weren’t allowed while being inside, while the exterior was fair game. Took a couple of pictures of the exterior.

The exterior, though, was very very very interesting. Many of the drawings inside the room were removed and replaced with replicas, which is very understandable. In some of the important rooms, there were life-sized models sculpted to resemble an ancient painting where the Shogun meets his subjects. It was really fascinating to see the picture coming to life. Damn shame that I can’t take pictures of the inside.

Although it’s smart to forbid inside pictures, though, as it makes me want to come back once in a while.

Still, I was rather tired and exhausted from climbing a mountain in the morning without breakfast and lunch, so I was constantly looking for seats to sit while touring the exterior of the residence. Kids, here’s a lesson. Never climb a mountain without breakfast. You’ll die. You’re not tough like me. You’ll die.

Nijo-Jo Verdict:

★★★★★

After the very very fascinating Shogunate Residence, I headed towards the next destination. This time, I am heading towards to the Gosho, or the Emperor’s Residence. The Emperor’s Residence was rather close to the Shogunate Residence, for political reasons, obviously. I decided to just walk to the Gosho, since taking the bus takes about the same amount of time as walking, so walking it is. Plus, I was hungry, so I was looking for restaurants along the way for lunch.

Funny thing. I chose to walk on the right side of the street, and none of the restaurants on the right side of the street was open. All of the restaurants on the left side of the street were open. Now, I could easily cross the street to go to the other side; but I thought I want to persist to eat something on the side of the street that I have chosen. Well, literally no restaurant on my side of the street was open. The street was 2 KM long. FML.

At the end of the street, though, there was a chain restaurant called “Sukiya”. From the name, the main dish that this chain sells should be Sukiyaki. However, based on the advertisements on the windows, it actually sells more Beef Rice (Gyu-don) and curry. I’ve seen the chain a couple of times, but I never wanted to get in, because I don’t want to get either Gyu-don and curry there.

This time, though, since I was soooo tired and hungry, I had to get in. I sat down, and ordered on the machine that’s on every table. I wanted to get the Gyu-don with kimchi, but it was sold out; so I just picked the curry with a giant chicken leg on it. After a long while, lunch was served.

Oh my god it sucked. It is the worst curry I’ve ever tasted in my entire life. I’ve never had such bad curry before, so that was actually kinda special. Never had bad curry, huh. I left without finishing, wow.

Restaurant Verdict:

★★☆☆☆

The Sukiya restaurant was on the adjacent corner to the Gosho. I dragged my bruised feet and marched along to the Emperor’s Residence, and boy, it was such a long walk. The Gosho is located in the middle of the north end to the walled garden, so me entering at the south end where the road was boobytrapped with loose rocks all the way was not the smartest idea. I was already tired, walking on loose rocks didn’t help. But, after a while, I finally reached the Gosho.

  The Gosho is free to enter, but since it is still used for actual ceremonies with the real emperor and the prince, it was heavily guarded, and guests entering need to hang a numbered pass on their necks.

Here are the pictures that I took inside the Gosho palace. Here is an interesting thing that happened while I was there.

I got into the palace grounds at 4:50, while the last official tour started at 4:30. Thinking that I missed the official tour, I just started to walk towards where people are heading to. At the first stop, there was a guide who led a group of 4 people. I didn’t know his affiliation, so I hesitated following him. At a corner, there was a Palace staff. I asked her if the guide was affiliated with the palace. She said she doesn’t know about him, but the official Japanese speaking guide was just around the corner. That was much better. I thanked her and ran towards the official guide.

The guide spoke very fast, and said many names that I didn’t know, so I was half listening half taking pictures. Lol.

When the tour ended, I was too tired to go anywhere else, so I just took the metro back to my hotel.

Gosho Verdict: ★★★★☆

Hotel name: Watermark Hotel Kyoto (HIS Hotel Group)

Address: Shimogyo-ku Daikokucho 195

Price: 304.29 RMB (43 USD) [Breakfast Included]

Verdict: ★★★★☆ (Adjusted for price decrease)

It is the same hotel that I stayed at yesterday. The only reason that I chose to include the name and the price one more time is that it was almost 50% cheaper compared to Saturday, and breakfast was included this time. Saturdays are never a good day to get a hotel in Japan, my friends.

Since I ate lunch at around 4 PM, I didn’t eat dinner. Tomorrow I am heading towards Nara, so I booked a hotel there and went to bed early.

Kyoto Verdict:

★★★★☆

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