We left Osaka by train one morning, bound for Kyoto, arriving at our hotel just before lunch. We headed straight for a restaurant that Rowan spotted that had great looking pizza – and it didn’t disappoint. We sat for an hour in the cool air-conditioned space, enjoying a fantastic salad buffet and wonderful pizzas and pasta, before we braved the sweltering heat again for the afternoon.
We hopped on the subway for a few stops to get us right to Nijo Castle, which we’d visited the last time we were in Kyoto, but only the gardens. This time we were able to visit the interior of the castle, as well as the beautifully manicured outdoor space, and were so glad we did.
We were able to walk around the main floor rooms of the largest structure on the grounds, and peer into them from the hallways. Inside, we marvelled at the painted mural reproductions including tigers, cedar trees, and cranes. One of the loveliest experiences was the “nightingale” hallway, so called because with each step visitors make, the nails in the ancient floorboards squeak, which sounds like the delicate chirping of birds!
The tour of all the rooms took about 45 minutes, and then we were able to view the garden, which includes a large pond and lots of gorgeously trimmed trees including many cedars sculpted into gorgeous forms, like giant bonsai trees. After a short rest and some water at a rest station on the grounds, we viewed some of the original murals from the castle in a small museum, followed by a trip through the gift shop.
In the evening, we took a couple of subways to Fushimi Inari Shrine. We’d visited and climbed to the top of the shrine during the day on our last trip, so we wanted to experience it at night this time around. The path through the red torii gates is illuminated by lanterns at night, with the lights shining into the surrounding forest, giving us glimpses of trees, and shrubs, and lots of insects – some small, and some very large!
It was still more than 30 degrees even at 9pm, so it was a bit of a sweaty climb. We made it beyond the halfway point and took lots of pictures of the view of Kyoto, before climbing back down and taking a different route that ended in a residential area before getting back to the front gates.
By the time we made our way back to our hotel it was time for a shower and another, longer rest, before heading to a grocery store to find some vegan sushi. We each stayed up late on our various devices, and had a long restful, sleep after our first day in Kyoto.
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