Kyoto Day 1 - Mostly Lost

First off, let me apologize for not getting to this while I was in Kyoto. I decided that the laptop was just to heavy to carry and left it behind.

I woke up early Wednesday morning, packed up my big backpack and walked to the station to catch my 8:20 Shinkansen to Kyoto. I got there about 3 hours later and started getting lost. My plan was to drop my big backpack off in a coin locker and grab my small backpack to carry around my map and stuff, and to pack up any souvenirs I might buy. I wandered Kyoto station for about 15 minutes before I could find a locker, and then grabbed a quick lunch at McDonalds's while I figured out the next step.

Here's where I made my first mistake. I planned on going to Fushimi Inari shrine in the south of town first, so I got out my train map and looked for a station named Fushimi. That was on a different, private company train line that was on the other side of the station. I followed the signs until they just sort of petered out. I looked turned around, saw the name with an arrow pointing the other way and followed it until I was back where I started. Did that 2 or 3 times and asked for directions. The guy at the information booth gestured to go outside and turn right, with a big, sweeping gesture that I took to mean go around. I went outside, saw construction that I took to mean this entrance was closed, and went around the building (which is a long way). When I got to the other side, I followed the signs that led me back to the same side of the building I started on. Turns out there were some stairs I was supposed to take that I missed.

When I finally got on the train, I sat down and looked into my guide book to see what to do when I got to Fushimi station. There, it clearly said that Fushimi Inari is close to both Fushimi Inari station and Inari station, but no where near Fushimi station. I had to re-check my train map and come up with plan be, which meant going past Fushimi station and transferring to another line to come back up to Fushimi Inari station.

Once I got there, I just followed the crowd. It was pretty easy to find the temple.
New Years is a big time for this shrine, apparently. Wiki says last year they had 2.7 million visitors over the 3 day New Year festivities. They set up basically a carnival just outside (and slightly less inside) the temple. I went with the flow past all the food and souvenir stands into the temple.
Fushimi Inari is famous for having thousands of the bright orange torii gates lining the paths up into the mountain behind the shrine. I wanted to hike through at least some of these paths, thinking it would be a nice, peaceful hike in the woods. I found where the path started pretty easily, since it turns out I wasn't the only person with this idea.

I took a picture of the crowd on the trail, and just now noticed that this guy thought I was taking a picture of him. Or maybe somebody was taking a picture of him, I don't know, either way I got the peace sign.

I followed the crowd up the mountain, step by step. It was like there was a roller coaster at the top or something, the line was so slow. I finally got to the end of the toriis and took a look around the shrine there, only to find more toriis leading up. I said to myself "Where do these stairs go? They go up" and kept following. I walked a while, came to the end, and saw more gates leading up. I'd come to a clearing, and there would be either another shrine or a small rest stop, snack bar thing, and another trail lined with toriis going up. The crowd started thinning out, and I started thinking "I've come this far, might as well finish". Seemed like a good idea the first 5 or 6 rest areas, but eventually it became less sightseeing and more just wanting to finish something. Sometimes the only path leading away would be downhill, and I would think I was finished, but it would turn a corner and keep going up.

Finally, after an hour of climbing, I found the top and started going down, still on a torii lined path.

I don't know if I was getting delirious or just got my second wind or what, but when I saw a non-torii path branching off down the mountain with nobody on it, I decided to take it. Road less travelled and all that. I thought it may be faster, since the steps looked steeper. The further I got from the torii path, the steeper this path got, until I started doubting the safety of my choice, but I was too tired to go back up, so I kept going. I got to the bottom, and instead of the temple, I was in some body's back yard. I had come down the wrong side of the mountain.

This isn't a huge mountain, so I figured if I kept the mountain to one side of me I could follow the road around and find my way back to where back. All part of the adventure, I figured. I was wandering around a basically rural area outside of the city, and it was getting late. The sun goes down around 5 or so here, and it was 4 and overcast. I started getting a little worried. I didn't have a backup plan, so I just kept walking. About 30 minutes later, I saw some people walk out of a little shrine, looked inside and saw a torii lined path. I took the path, and the torii's stopped about 100 yards further on. It was still going the direction I though I wanted it to, so I kept going, One of the stones slipped, and I fell down, but I felt good to be on the right path again. I finally popped out a trail at the first shrine on the way up the mountain. So that's why I look so worn out and happy in this picture. Did I mention it was cold?

After picking up some lucky charms as souvenirs, I went back to the station (the right way) to pick up my stuff and check into the hotel. I was staying right across the street from Nijo-jo castle, but I'll get to that. I checked in and rested for an hour before starting stage 2.

I took the subway over to someplace close to Gion, the geisha section of town. My plan was to do some geisha spotting, eat dinner, and then find one of the western style bars I read about. I either got there too late or was looking in the wrong place for the geishas, so no luck there. I was wandering around looking for either a geisha, food, or finding the bars when I saw another temple with a crowd. I figured there were probably food stands there, so I decided to make that dinner.

While I was eating my cup of chicken nuggets and wandering around the temple/carnival, I ran into Todd (one of the other OAPs) and his family. I knew they were going to be in Kyoto, but I figured with 2000 shrines and temples, the odds of running into them were pretty slim.

I went back to the bar for a couple beers and the end of a soccer game (they're all Irish pubs here), then, since the place was dead, went back to the hotel to rest and plot out my next day. Since this is already way too long, I'll get to that tomorrow.