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Published: February 12th 2010
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Happy Birthday to me! Wow, 30. This one was hard, can't lie, But I just gotta keep telling myself your either growing old or dying young. But if any day would be perfect to visit the Fushimi Inari shrine, this would be it. This is the head shrine of the Inari. There are also fox statues that line the pathway that act as messengers. I have been looking forward to coming here since I researched it and it did not dissapoint. It was piss pouring rain today, which was very inconvienent for my picture taking, but seemed almost appropriate for the day. As soon as you arrive you can reconize the huge Torii gates that lead up to the shrine. When we walked further up we came up to this one part in the shrine where you pull on this long cord and ring the bell a couple times, throw your money thru the gates into this room where a man sits inside and chants, and you clap your hands twice, say a prayer or wish (unselfish wish of course) and bow twice. It was very calming and a great way to start the small hike thu the inari gates.This area
just really has to be seen I dont even know how to descibe it, but it was amazing.I loved going thru all the torii gates, bright orange with black characters painted down the side, and the gates lines up one by one making a hallway of sorts. Unbelievable.
I wanted my birthday tobe very relaxing, not hurried, and of course all about food. In the morning we had my traditional birthday dim sum, which was really good, and progressed from there to the bakery at kyoto station where me and jill may have gone a bit overboard with the pastries. Whatever its my birthday,(how many times can I pull that today?) and for dinner I wanted very traditional Kyoto cusine. Because Kyoto is a city that is mainly buddhist a lot of their food is based on vegetarian cusine. Of course there was an outcry form the guys, so I also read about the traditional Kaiseki. This is usually served in ryokans, traditional japanese inns, but there are a number of restaurants that serve this style of food, but it can be pricy, like 150 pre person.It is served as a number of small dishes, usually chef selection, and depending
on what you spend, can be an 8 to 12 course meal.But where to find a restaurant? I had heard a lot about the Pontocho street where all the good restaurants are and they face the Kamo river. So I decided it would be best just to make our way down there and check it out. We got the taxi driver to drop us off at Pontocho which looks like a small alley, lined with small pubs, little doorways with white lanterns hanging from them and random "fast food" kiosks where men were set up in their tiny kitchens, serving up their own street food specialty. It was still drizzleing outside so the pavement was wet and gave a reflection of the lanterns on the street. I love little alleys like this that have thier own personality, and they are usually where you find the best food as well. Luckily Jill was on the lookout and we found a great little restuarant that served up this kaiseki style dining, and the prices were really reasonable, couses starting from $38-$80. How great it that? A small japanese woman came out and greeted up, and after we removed our shoes we were
lead upstairs to this square room, with a huge window overlooking the kamo river, and low tables with tatami mats. How perfect is this? A true japanese style dinner? I think for the food you really have to check out the pictures because the food was insane and ended up being like 8 courses. This was a perfect birthday dinner and if we had restaurants like this in calgary i would definelty go once a month. I was so stuffed after,( I think we all were) and because of rain and the abundace of injuries some of the gang are going thru, we decided to not go out and do it up in Tokyo for my 30th instead.
So now I leave Kyoto, headed towards Nagoya, and its always sad to me to be leaving a city just when you start to get to know it. I was starting to reconize ny way around and establish a routine. I think the spititual factor will be the biggest memory of Kyoto for me. but onward to a new city and new food! Hey whateva, its my birthday!
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barbina
non-member comment
hi
hello! happy birthday shannon! im glad to hear you had a fantastic day, you deserve it! you guys look great and it looks like so much fun! much love! barb xo