First of all..... Can I just ask, whoever turned up the heating in Kyoto, could you possibly turn it down a notch or two.... It is really really warm here at the moment ..... Got to 21 degrees today and I think I may have possibly got sunburn in November!!!!! This is not good for someone who avoids the sun like the plague........
Anyway.... Onwards and upwards! We were out early this morning for our double header trip - we were off to Uji and a visit to the Fushimi Inari Shrine.
Uji is only about a 15 minute journey from Kyoto, so nice and easy to get to. Uji is well known for it's green tea and is home to what is believed to be the oldest tea shop in the world..... Tsuen (it's been serving tea since 1160).
This is where I was going to stock up on some nice new tea to bring home and Uji didn't disappoint. From the moment we got off the train, there were a multitude of shops and stalls selling and serving tea (bit of a nightmare for Scott being a coffee drinker haha).
You can't really see them, but there are tea ladies on the gate.......
The main attraction here - apart from the tea, is the Byodoin Shrine - which is a UNESCO world heritage site. The shrine is surrounded by quite a large garden and as we found out today - is very popular!!! It is also on the 10 yen coin......
There is also a museum and the last picture there is the Pheonix Hall In the hall is an image of Amida - and he is covered in gold leaf ... Quite impressive but you can't see that as I wasn't allowed to take photos. We spent quite a bit of time in here before moving on..... Mainly to try and find some shade as I was now starting to get sun-stroke!!!!
This is a perfect opportunity to stop and sample some of the green tea offerings..... But in the form of ice cream!!
We then moved on to the other side of Uji, by crossing a huge red bridge.... stopping to look at the views (plus there was a nice breeze from here to cool us down) .....
Over the river is the 'Tale of Genji' museum. The Tale of Genji is a Japanese classic book and is considered to be the worlds first novel. I had read the book a long time ago and fancied seeing the museum .... But it's closed on Monday booooo!! Never mind.....
We had a lovely walk along the riverside and went to the Ujigami Shrine....here there is a 'Ring of Wisdom' so I jumped through it - twice just to be sure ..... I now feel very wisdomous!!!!
We took in more of the surroundings and continued our walk along the river..... I think Scott has fallen in love with Uji.... And I don't blame him, it is gorgeous.
We made our way back to the train station via the tea shops and browsed (and maybe bought) the tea selections.
As we were already on the Nara line, we decided re-visit the Funishimi Inari shrine. This is the place with the thousand of tori gates going up the mountain side. Each gate has been donated by a company or a family and some of them go back decades.
The last time we were here was in 2011 and it was fairly quiet - but today it was heaving!! There are signs all over saying that this shrine was voted the No1 spot to visit on Trip Advisor ..... And it seemed everyone was doing just that!!!
I'm sure Scott is in almost every photo as he seemed to photo bomb everyone .... Not his fault, he's just a lot taller than everyone else.
After going through some of the gates.... We didn't do them all as they go right up the mountain and we were pushed for time (!) ....we sauntered back down towards the train station via the tat shops .... Great places - they sell everything!!! But I held off from buying anything as I am saving myself for later, plus I was laden down with tea!! Don't want to push it too soon .... Still got a ways to go yet!!!
Gat back to the apartment where we've both crashed. Scott is trying the bath tonight to see if he can loosen up his back!! Should be interesting.....
He also has a lot of planning to do as tomorrow is a big day .... Not only is it a Bullet Train day, but we are going to Kanazawa (about 2 hours out of Kyoto) and I plan to see a lot of things!!!
It's going to be an early start for us tomorrow.... So early night tonight ....
So until next time .... Oyasumi nasai xxx
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