all part of life

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

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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..

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Sundar becomes Sundar San at Arashiyama Bamboo Forest

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The previous post in this series is here..

After the deer park there was another ride to the Arashiyama bamboo forest complex. What made this interesting was the dress up.

Our guide told us that we could rent authentic Japanese clothing and take pictures through the forest. We could pay extra and wear it the rest of the day and return it at another branch in Kyoto.

Due to some communication mixup between the front and back of the bus, the men confirmed that we are doing this.. all six of us. As soon as the bus stopped, we were told that the groups that dress up would wait. The guide will direct the rest of the group and come back and get us. It also meant we would have 40 minutes less to spend. That meant walking faster. Sadly we got authentic Japanese sandals as well. This made the walking challenging, especially for the ladies. They were cursing us for most of the walk. We walked for almost two hours in that costume while taking pictures. The pictures came out great!

When we were still in the bus the locals wearing kimonos were wearing sport shoes. Should have noticed that! You will see it in one of the pics. Given there were almost 500 photos just at this place, this gallery is a highlight in itself.

A few shots in landscape format..

The bamboo forest is breathtaking. The crowds do spoil it. Still we got a lot of pictures without the crowd. Folks are nice and patient and let you take pictures without cutting in. Guess everyone becomes polite in Japan.. that included us.

After the fact everyone agreed it was not a bad idea. We returned the costumes right there after coming back but did not have time to get any proper lunch. So everyone had some ice cream and fruit before getting back on the bus.

Our recommendation is you do rent the costume but keep your shoes. Carry the sandals in a bag if required. Just change at places for an authentic photo. This way the walking is not compromised.

here is a video highlight

There was one more stop before we were going to be dropped at the Kyoto train station..

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Teamlab Botanical Garden - Osaka

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The previous post in this series is here..

Right after checking in at the Tokyo Inn in Osaka Namba, we went to the room, dropped our luggage and came down in 20 minutes. We had booked tickets at 7PM to see the light show at the Teamlab Botanical garden. It was supposed to be a short train ride but we were still new to the train business in Japan. You come 20 seconds late and the train is gone! These guys are very very very very punctual.

Also the same train station has many entrances and exits and if you don’t listen to your smart kids and haven’t figured out Japanese coins, buying tickets can take time at every machine.

We did barely manage our ride to this place and walked a good 20 minutes to the entrance of this Ngai botanical garden. We thought we were late but turns out everyone gets a 7PM ticket for night light show. There were 200 people ahead of us in the line. We joined the moving line and walked through the light show.

It was fantastic! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are the pictures..

After the light show our jet lag started to show. So we walked back to the train station. It was a beautiful and pleasant evening. We took the train back to Osaka Namba. There was still leftover food from what we had packed. So we ate that and went to sleep.

A video clip of the Team lab visit..

The next morning we had to wake up early for breakfast and catch a train. Every day was going to be packed after this..

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