Ogii has a few bruises from where the deer in Nara bit her yesterday.
Breakfast at the hotel.
It's all pre-made on a tray.
A sign on a door.
Google Translate says, "I can't get out of here. I can't help it. I can't leave." Although I think it's supposed to mean don't enter.
The Rolls Royce in the lobby.
It's a Silver Shadow II.
A room by the lobby with coffee.
And microwave and toaster oven.
That's useful to heat up our cookies.
Our plan for today.
First Ogii has to write on the backs of the post cards she bought.
Gate.
Cats eating sushi.
Kabuki.
More cats.
A temple.
Mount Fuji.
We left our bags at the lobby and only carried Ogii's backpack.
This post office was only a few blocks away.
You have to put international mail in the blue slot on the right.
Little shrine.
Neat name board.
Unmanned store.
With clothing and small items.
We're mostly taking buses today.
It's a good thing we have Google Maps, because it would be much harder to figure this out without it.
The time tables aren't too hard to read.
Nor is the route map. The problem is finding the bus stop initially, and then knowing what to do if the one you planned on is late, or if there is another one that is better.
Getting on.
Getting off. Each ride is only $1.50, and we have $48 left, so we should be fine for the rest of our trip.
Our first stop is Nijo Castle.
The entrance.
With us.
There are multiple gates, gardens, and palaces inside.
Very decorated gate.
Intricate carvings.
Bird.
Dragon and tiger.
The Ninomaru-goten Palace, built in 1603, has nightingale floors, which squeak when you walk on them to alert the residents to intruders.
A carving at the entrance.
You have to remove your shoes. The slots are numbered so you can remember where yours are.
The rooms. You can't take pictures inside.
Bells rung for emergencies.
Another gate.
To a garden.
A small lake.
Then across a moat via a bridge.
There are many carp below.
You can even buy food to feed them.
Next gate.
Old frame.
Another entrance.
Open area.
A good view from this elevated corner.
With the castle buildings behind us.
The moat.
Honmaru-goten Palace, although you need a separate entrance fee and reservation to go in, so we skipped it.
Picture of a bird on a tree.
Across another bridge.
Looking down the moat.
Sakura trees.
Flowers.
Red and white roses.
Very pretty.
Kita Nakashikiri-mon Gate.
Pretty pond.
There was a row of vendors near the end of the walk around the inside of the castle.
Next bus.
Fun building.
Crossing Kamo River.
There are people walking across it on stones.
Some tulips.
The philosopher's path runs between two temples.
And is a nice walk along a stream.
With many cherry blossom trees overhead.
Occasional bridges over the stream.
Some blossom buds.
With Ogii.
There were occasional vendors along the way. This one had food.
The path is pretty narrow; don't fall in.
There are a few smaller temples along the way.
A clothing vendor.
A turtle.
A man painting.
A man drumming.
Kano Shojuan Kyotochashitsuto is a little sweets restaurant.
The menu says they will have a tea ceremony starting in a few minutes, but when we asked, they weren't doing it today. We could still have the matcha tea and sweets, though.
So that's what we did.
Some sort of sweet.
Tea.
More snacks inside.
The end of the path.
A cat restaurant.
This one doesn't have a vegetarian menu.
We went to the Eikando (Zenrinji) temple.
We hadn't planned on visiting this one, but it was right here.
And it seemed nice inside.
A bell.
It had multiple levels.
Up the stairs.
Along the path.
A little view of the city.
A shrine.
A little torii gate.
Back down the path.
Nice curved wood stairs.
A few areas were painted.
A little garden.
Very zen.
A little fountain.
With a dragon.
Ogii putting some coins on the statue.
Waterfall at the end.
The lake.
Statues.
The bridge goes out to a little island.
Pretty trees on the hill.
Waiting at the next bus stop.
Some huge trucks came down this road.
Although there were also bicyclists and cars.
The bus was pretty crowded.
Not everyone could fit on the bus. Hopefully another one comes soon.
We're stuck behind a few bicyclists.
We passed under the huge Heian-Jingu Shrine Grand Torii.
Ninja on the wall.
There were a few kimono rental stores around.
It was super crowded on the walk to the Kiyomizu-dera temple.
Also busy there, but not so packed.
Multiple buildings.
You couldn't take the steps up to this one.
It had some nice dragon statues in front.
Large bell.
Nice trees.
This corner was a popular spot for photos.
As was under this building.
Ogii and some cherry blossoms.
The other way.
We saw this very old store on the walk back and bought a few gifts.
There are many knife stores, but I don't think we can carry them on to the flight, and we're not checking bags.
Kimono rentals.
This bus has a tight fit.
But it can squeeze through.
Gion Corner.
There are many geisha shows around here.
We stopped at this Italian restaurant by our hotel for dinner.
Wine.
Beef.
Pasta.
And dessert.
Then we took a short train south.
No napping yet, although we're almost done. Only one more stop.
Which has many fox symbols.
Another one.
Many people here, too.
Treet tacos.
A red torii gate.
It's after 5pm, so some of the vendors are shutting down.
Another gate.
And another.
The foxes act as messengers for the deity Inari Okami.
They often hold symbolic items representing the deity's power and spiritual gifts, like keys.
Or balls.
There are a ton of red torii gates at Fushimi Inari Taisha.
There's one.
The line of them begins.
A plaque at the top.
Us.
From the side.
More fox statues.
There are many people here.
But it was an easy walk.
Even though it was crowded, people kept walking, so it wasn't too slow.
Many of the gates had writing on them.
They either said, "The auspicious day of X..."
... or were what seemed to be sponsors.
Finally, no people.
Time for a quick selfie.
It keeps going up the hill, but we turned around here.
Another nice tree for Ogii.
Another fox.
We tried getting on the Shinkansen to Hiroshima, but our tickets wouldn't let us through the gates.
So we went to information.
They didn't speak English, but their iPads did. The pass we had wouldn't let us take the Shinkansen directly to Hiroshima. We had to go to Shin-Osaka first on a normal train, and then could take the Shinkansen to Hiroshima.
I'm not sure why our pass doesn't have the direct one, but it's not too bad; Osaka is pretty much on our way.
Even though the Shinkansen is very fast, it still takes around 1.5 hours from Osaka to Hiroshima.
But at least we could get through the gates here.
There's the Shinkansen.
Another thing we hadn't planned for: most of the cars are only if you have reserations. Only the first few cars are for non-reserved passengers. We were at car 12, so we had to walk all the way to the other end.
Which already had a long line of people waiting. I hope we get a seat.
Thankfully we did. The seats even have power outlets.
There are three levels of trains, depending on how many stops they make.
A big stadium in Hiroshima.
We grabbed a few fast food items at 7-Eleven for dinner.
Then went to our hotel: Hiroshima Station Universal Hotel Shinkansen Exit Right. I like how the name of the hotel tells you how to get there from the train station.
It's a long ways down.
A little view of the city.
Another one.
Our room.
Bathroom.
A remote of some sort.
Google Translate to the rescue. I'm not sure what most of these do, but I understand temperature.
Dinner.