Kyoto with Mum and Dad

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Memoirs of a Geisha - Marissa

Waking up to an alarm is never nice, especially after a night out (see Gyoooza!!! - Mum & Dad in Shizuoka), but we were off to Kyoto!
It was Amy’s and my second visit to this amazing city. Last time we were in Kyoto, bad weather prevented us from doing a lot of things we were now able to do this trip. The photos do most of the explaining but the highlights were:

Kiyomizudera Temple - Beautiful location up on the hill close to our ryokan. I also loved the shopping street leading up to it as you could taste test nearly everything!

Sanjusangendo - 1001 statues of Kannon carved from wood and painted gold. We were not allowed to photograph inside, but trust me it was amazing!

Fushimi Inari Shrine - Yes, all the red torii gates! They were actually very orange! We didn't have the energy to walk the 4km torii gate lined path but got some pretty good pics anyway!

Cormorant Fishing at Arashiyama - This was on our list from last time but it was cancelled due to bad weather. I'm glad I did it but it wasn't as great as I had expected.

Arashiyama Monkey Forest - This was one of my favourite things! The walk up to the top of the hill was quite pleasant (and no, dad, nothing in the slightest compared to climbing Mt Fuji!) and there was a great view of the city (opposite side to Kiyomizudera). Once we reached the top, the staff greeted us, konnichiwa, ushered us inside a hut/shop and gave us a wet towel. We then bought some food, sweet potato and peanuts, for the monkeys, who were outside. There was a fence in the hut so we could feed the monkeys through it without them jumping on us or catching rabies! We felt like zoo animals in the cage but it was a great way to feed them. They were very greedy, however, and the mothers often stole their babies' food!

Sagano Bamboo Forest - We weren't exactly sure where it was so jumped in a cab, only to take us pretty much just up the road and around the corner!

So after an amazing time in Kyoto and even better time in Shizuoka, on Saturday morning, half asleep, I said goodbye my parents, till Christmas…sniff sniff! Thanks for coming!!!

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Photos

Arriving at our ryokan with our friendly cab driver
In Japan, the cab doors open and close automatically! Something I had to get use to!

Kiyomizdera
Mum and dad at the temple

Me! (without the lady)
After waiting for forever for a lady to move out of our prime position to take this photo, I stood in front of her and it all worked out ok!

Kiyomizudera (pure water temple)
This spring water is supposed to have healing powers - lucky I wasn't sick because there was a huge line up!

Kiyomizudera
This temple is really spectacular as it is set up on a hill and overlooks Kyoto city

Cormorant fishing at Arashiyama
The fire attracts the fish, then when the cormorants catch one, they are hauled up and choked so they spit the fish out. An old tradition at Arashiyama before fishing rods were invented!

Cormorant fishing at Arashiyama
It sounded a lot better in the brochures, I didn't realise they choked the cormoront to get the fish, it was a little cruel!

Arashiyama
We watched the cormorant fishing from a boat. A 'shop' boat came to sell us food, drinks and fireworks.

A poster of what we saw at Sanjusangendo
However not even photos would have done it justice, it was amazing! 1001 wood carved statues of Kannon.

Fushimi Inari Shrine
Since seeing Memoirs of a Geisha, I always wanted to go here. We even re-enacted the scene haha!

Comments

[Mum]

Thanks again!
xxx