A thousand gates - Stop 3 on the Osaka to Kyoto bus tour

The previous post in this series is here..

The last stop on our Osaka to Kyoto bus tour was the 1000 Tori gate shrine at Fushimi Inori Taisha.

Yet again, a beautiful place and temple where it is impossible to get any photos thanks to the 1000’s of people. 1000 is a lot of gates but for 6000 people walking around, it is still 1/2 a dozen people per gate.

Here are the pictures. The fox plays a crucial role in the temple lore.. so I got a fox mask prop from our guide for some photos.. It is also important to see what the fox has in its mouth.. a scroll means knowledge, grain means food, etc. etc..

I wanted to buy this panda drum they were selling but given our luggage weight passed on it. We did get some delicious chips (single potato cut and put on a stick and fried in front of us).. it was good!

I got one decent pano shot of the temple, covered in bits and pieces in previous photos..

A video highlight reel

After walking back to the parking lot it was a relatively shorter drive to the Kyoto train station where we all got our luggage out. Our hotel was right opposite the train station and we were able to get there quickly.

It was still close to 6PM when we got to our hotel. So we checked in and came right out to go see the shopping district. That in the next post..

From Osaka to Kyoto - First stop Nara Deer Park

The previous post in this series is here..

One of my contributions to this trip planning was an idea to just go from Osaka to Kyoto through a Viator bus tour with three stops on the way. If you are constrained for time this is a great idea as you get a guide for three important places.

We were pros at the breakfast area on Day 3 in the Toyoko Inn as the menu was the same. We went back up to the rooms to get our luggage and it was supposed to be a 15 minute walk to the bus pickup point. The pickup said 8:30. I suggested we leave early and we did leave early. What we saw there was similar to the National Geographic video of Antarctic penguins returning home and everyone trying to find their family all at once.

There were 20 plus buses on the side of the street with guides having flags, close to a 1000 people jostling on the pavement with all their luggage trying to find their guide and bus. The penguins had it easy!

Eventually we found the guide, walked back towards the hotel to our bus and got in. The guide was a Chinese guy who spoke good English. He said it was going to be a long drive to Nara and folks who wanted to sleep can. So I dozed off till we were almost at Nara.

Once we got off the bus we went to the deer park. We got a crash course on handling the deer and the brave ones paid and got deer biscuits to feed the deer. My first attempt did not go well as an aggressive deer bit me in the stomach through my shirt. We put some hand sanitizer on it and kept going. The second attempt was better as a few deer behaved and bowed before accepting the biscuit.

As a group we had fun!

After the deer we went to visit a smaller temple near the parking lot. We were told that there is a giant buddha temple 20 minutes walk away but we will have to come back from Kyoto separately as it was a half day affair to visit that temple complex. We made a note of that and got back on the bus..

Here is a video highlight reel..

The next stop was something else..

A history lesson in Hiroshima- A must see place for all Americans

The previous post in this series is here..

Our day 2 in Japan started early. There were enough vegetarian options for breakfast at the Toyoko Inn. They also had Croissants. Only thing missing was chai. We always had instant packets of Wagh Bakri ginger chai and that made up for it. They even had a free machine that dispensed hot cocoa. It was nice. Once everyone was ready we made it to the train station. Till that point we had only been on local trains.

This morning we were on the Shinkansen from Osaka to Hiroshima. It was a long ride but the speed of the train and the timing to the second was just amazing! Thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Once at Hiroshima, we decided to go see everything by ourselves. There was a 20 minute ride from the train station to the center. We found a seven seater van to hire for this. (if you are a group of 4-6 chose this option in Japan. It is value for money but usually available only from train stations or on Uber apps. you can’t wave it down like a taxi)

It was a grim reminder of how low humans can go and also how folks can redeem themselves. There are lot of idiots in positions of power today with bloated egos. It does not bode well for the world.

We walked around all the memorials and museum. Decided to skip the boat ride. It was cloudy but you could feel the heat and humidity. Then we went to the Castle as the last stop. It was another interesting experience. Finally we made it to a marketplace.

Jr. had found an “insta” famous restaurant. When we went there it was closed! So we found another vegan place close by and decided to eat there. Given my allergies and it being the first time we were eating out, I skipped and sipped lemonade. Later we went to a bakery and got a lot of different breads including a cheese bread that I loved. The breads were different and so soft. Imagine bread that pulls off like soan pappadi! Just lovely.

Here are the photos..

After lunch it was time to catch the Shinkansen back to Osaka. So we took two taxis. At the very first light the two went in different directions. We knew it was a 25 minute ride from where we started. Good thing is we could track each other on the iPhone and catch up. More photos..

We walked by a Yoga studio in Hiroshima on our way to the train station. Given how Bikram had started teaching in Japan, I was interested in seeing the studio where he taught. We talked to a local guide and were pleasantly surprised to hear “in Japan, yoga now has a negative connotation. Ever since an organization bombed a train station with Sarin nerve gas and folks in that organization did yoga, we as a culture do not look up to it.. that is also the reason we don’t have dust bins everywhere. you have to carry your own trash back home! that organization used trash cans to leave the bombs”.. So we learned a few things on this trip!

A video highlight reel..

The return ride was a blur. Everyone was dozing off on the high speed train. When we came back to Osaka, it was a little after 3PM.

Decisions had to be made by weary travelers. Tough decisions.. but we made a great call.. that in the next post.