DAY 6, part I: Nishiki Market & Fushimi Inari

short & sweet & picture heavy.

10.31.10

It came time to bid Hotel Kinki farewell. After spending two nights in Osaka and eating our heart's content...we had booked one night at a Ryokan (traditional Japanese guest house...similar to a bed & breakfast) in Kyoto. After getting totally lost from Shijo Station (which is 2 stops by subway from Kyoto station) we finally found Watazen Ryokan where we were checking in for the night. At this point it is only noon and check in is 4pm. We dropped off our (TOO BIG & HEAVY) bags and ventured back to the subway to find our way to Fushimi Inari Shrine.

(di note: )
upon entering the temple...you cleanse your hands and rinse your mouth with water. why? i have no idea. all of the explanations were in japanese.

i followed the directions and filled my mouth with water from my hand...

aaron seems to have missed the memo!

This is best known for it's many Torii Gates. There are said to be more than 1000 of these red gates. Yet again.....another breathtaking site. The focus here, rather than the shrines themselves or the scenery surrounding them are the gates. You walk under hundreds of these, progressively getting larger each time you enter a new set of gates. There's writing on the sides of each of them, though we obviously have NO idea what they say.

We were lucky enough to catch a japanese photo shoot taking place during our walk as well. A woman was dressed up in a full kimono robe and we snapped a shot of her in the background of one of our photos.

After leaving Fushimi Inari (it started raining fairly heavily again), we headed back to town to walk towards our Ryokan.

Needed some food, we stopped into a basement restaurant for some amazing Sukiyaki and a beer (of course we're having another beer!).

What awaited us after lunch was incredible. Lucky lucky us. Di had been talking about wanting to visit Nishiki market, a covered street filled with food vendors and assorted shops.

This is where many of Kyoto's restaurants get their ingredients for cooking. This place was wall to wall people and looked like the ferry building in San Francisco on steroids. Stall after stall of delicious food and everyone was sampling something. Pickled daikon, radishes, freshly made mochi, fresh scallops and oysters, squid on a stick, a stall dedicated to nothing but various seaweeds and an incredible Japanese candy store. Di's eyes lit up the minute we entered this candy shop and she told me all about the kinds of goodies she ate as a kid. You could tell she wanted to buy one of everything, but we made it through the entire place without buying any more than a fresh mochi! We had to save room in our stomachs for the upcoming Ryokan 14 course dinner, served in our rooms. We'll be back tomorrow anyway!

here's our little photo dedication to nishiki market...we'll miss you, market. you were our favorite shopping yet!