Day 5

We got our acts together enough today to meet up at 9 and had some pastries / rolls at our usual Starbucks

Then we set off for Kyoto

Now, when you are faced with a plethora of platforms and destinations it’s SO easy to find which one you want because of the numbering and colour coding but f*** me finding the entrance that you need is nigh on impossible

I was pulling my hair out

I asked one woman for help but she spoke no English but the 2nd person I asked not only was Japanese but had just returned from living in New York so his English was excellent - which I complimented him on. I do wish I’d known about the New York thing before I did that, mind

So he led us confidently approx 20 yards from the spot we were standing and said “it’s that way”

- d’oh!!!!

So we boarded the train and it took about 30 minutes to get to Kyoto from there we took a tube to Inari to visit the world renowned shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha. No I’d not heard of it either until I’d googled it this morning but if the net says it’s world renowned then it must be true

It was impressive on first sight

In one of the buildings came the sound of a slow beating drum and when we went to investigate we saw two Japanese women in full garb performing an extraordinary dance of elegance

You’re just going to have to believe me though as photos / videos were strictly prohibited and for once even the unruly foreigners complied

Then we saw a sign that NO-ONE wanted to see, evidence of a walk through the holy gates that seemed to go up a mountain

It couldn’t be that bad though, could it? Lots of people were there in far less suitable walking attire than even us

It went on…..

And on…..

And on….

And on, before we got to the top, half dead with exhaustion and lactic acid poisoning having felt like we’d just climbed K2

There were for me, only 3 redeeming moments of the climb (apart from the view)

1 When Hattie saw the “Please don’t feed the monkeys” sign responding “well that’s all I bloody need now, monkeys”

2 when we stopped to buy water and Joss, having asked for about a fiver’s worth of drinks, got confused with the money and handed over the equivalent of a £70 note. The woman looked flabbergasted and halfway up the mountain had to find more change than she’s ever had to do before 🤣

3 Hattie has a phobia of birds and as soon as we got to the top and found a seat, a pigeon flew down to greet her

The walk down had a shortcut (why didn’t we know about this) and so was far shorter so we were soon back on the train for Kyoto

We were on the lookout for some traditional Japanese food and in this place we found it

I had this :

This was all lovely except for the 3rd skewer which instead of being comprised of a delicate beef, it was in fact liver

I wondered why Joss was laughing so hard as I was about to try it

Still - we’ve broken our duck by eating authentic food and the rest was delicious

We’d planned to go to the Imperial Palace after that but because today is a public holiday we found out it was closing early and as the heavens opened we decided to change our plans and go up the Kyoto Tower

Who doesn’t like a good observation deck?

After that it was back on the train to Osaka for a little siesta

For the evening meal, as we’d had Japanese for lunch we thought we’d make it up to kieren by going to the Outback Steakhouse, even though I was still stuffed from lunch

We Google mapped the place and ended up at an office block in a slightly off the beaten track road

This couldn’t be it surely?

We walked in and there was a single security guard standing in a vacant office corridor

Nervously I approached him and showed him my screen of the restaurant and to my surprise he pointed at the lift and then downwards

As we complied I was fearful that this was a long sting of how Japanese kidnap gullible foreigners but when we got down there it was there with a whole host of restaurants

How weird?

Our waitress had excellent English so when paying the bill I said how poorly this place was advertised and that I was surprised anyone found it. She laughed and said almost no one did - what a strange business plan

Here are some pictures to prove the weirdness