Yoshikawa Ryokan Part 2 & Fushimi Inari

Awkward couple picture lol We took a stroll around the interior garden after breakfast our last day.

I figure I will post our Kaiseki and traditional Japanese breakfast on the next post, and focus on some scenery pictures from Yoshikawa, and talk about our hike up Fushimi Inari.

View from our room in the evening <3

Super awkward selfie time!

 Poor Kitsune was unable to fit into any of the sandals that were provided for him to wear. They were so small on him! He tolerated the pain, but had a hard time walking.

Poor Kitsune Paws!

Handsome Kitsune lounging on his futon <3

Waiting to head down to breakfast in our little reading nook

Enjoyed wearing the cotton Yukata provided for us <3

So, we went off to climb Fushimi Inari and see the sunset from the top of the mountain. Fushimi Inari was perfect for Kitsune, because it was full of foxes! Tons of Kitsune guardian statues, and the tourist trap stalls were full of Kitsune figurines etc. Super fun to see!

Just about to enter the shrine

Map of the Shrine

The pillars were enormous! This is the shrine you always see on TV of people wandering through the really close Torii, their vivid bright red color shining in the dim sunlight. In reality the place is really fascinating, but definitely not very red. Much more of an orange color. Some spots were reddish, but have to say all those pictures you see are VERY saturated lol. Lots of tourists, so it was difficult to get good pictures. Even so, I wish I could have captured the feeling you get walking through the tunnels.

Handsome Kitsune and adorbs Littlebear!

So the first few Torii tunnels you walk through are not super close together. There are plenty of larger gaps between them so you don't really feel enclosed.

Then you enter the Torii section that is always shown for tourists. The beams much closer together, and the feeling of walking through a cool portal of some sort hits you. I really wish my pictures could show the feeling of being there. I took a bunch of video, but I am trash-sauce at video taking apparently T.T I will try to edit them once we are back home.

View of the close Torii tunnel

 Once you exit the Torii tunnels, you wander around following the paths through graves and random shrines. Further up the mountain, you re-enter the Torii tunnels, but nothing super close together anymore. The further up you climb, the thinner the crowd becomes.

My camera battery started to die at this point, so I had to plug it into my power bank and wait to just take the sunset pics we were hoping to get.

Have I mentioned this shrine is on a mountain? And you have to climb a BAZILLION stairs? Have I mentioned how much I HATE stairs? No? Well, I abso-frickin-lutly HATE stairs lol They are my nemesis.

Know Kung Fu Panda? That whole scene with Poe and the stairs? Yeah. That's me. Ugh

The air was cold, but half way up the mountain Kitsune and I were so sweaty and boiling that we had to strip out of our jackets and keep climbing in our t-shirts. Yeah....we got some strange looks.

Mid point pic of Kyoto before sunset

 Unfortunately we arrived at the shrine a bit late in the day, so we didn't really have a lot of time to hike up the mountain if we wanted to catch the sunset. So we were hoofing it which made those bloody stairs all the worse T.T  When we reached this mid point and the crowds were pretty thin, I was so pooped and told Kitsune this was good enough. I don't want to keep going (it was all stairs from that point on practically) but Kitsune bolstered me up and convinced me to see the hike through. I'm glad he did because the scenery of Kyoto at the top was stunning. There were like 3 people there with us, so it was quiet. We rested and watched the sun shimmer over Kyoto through the clouds.

Top overlook of Kyoto

So...here's the funny part. Our legs were tired, we were still jet-lagged, and we still needed to hike down the mountain. There weren't really any people to follow, and the signs weren't very good at telling us where to actually go. So when I saw 2 people heading down a hill, instead of the very steep stair case off shoot, I said "Lets follow them!"

Then they turned around and came back. Saw us and warned us the slope got really steep and they weren't sure if that was the right way to go. So, Kitsune and I turned around to follow them again, but I really didn't want to hike back up the hill we had already gone down, nor did my knees want to handle really steep stairs. 

So we kept heading down the hill.

And after quite a steep downhill trek, we encountered a barrier across the road. Neither of us could read the signs, so we had no idea if we could actually head onward, or if it would be really bad. 

I was tired, and totally NOT hiking up the extreme slope we had just climbed down. So I donned my "I'm an idiot tourist face" and figured I would just play dumb and apologetic if we got in trouble.

Thankfully, we ended up in a residential area. Unfortunately, we had no clue where we were.

We ended up quite far from the shrine, and luckily Kitsune's phone had signal and was able to GPS us to the closest rail stop.

We had quite the adventure, and honestly, even with all the aches and pains and tiredness we felt, I wouldn't change a thing. If I am going to get completely lost in a foreign country, I wouldn't want to be with anyone else other than my Kitsune. <3