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A thousand gates - Stop 3 on the Osaka to Kyoto bus tour

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The previous post in this series is here..

The last stop on our Osaka to Kyoto bus tour was the 1000 Tori gate shrine at Fushimi Inori Taisha.

Yet again, a beautiful place and temple where it is impossible to get any photos thanks to the 1000’s of people. 1000 is a lot of gates but for 6000 people walking around, it is still 1/2 a dozen people per gate.

Here are the pictures. The fox plays a crucial role in the temple lore.. so I got a fox mask prop from our guide for some photos.. It is also important to see what the fox has in its mouth.. a scroll means knowledge, grain means food, etc. etc..

I wanted to buy this panda drum they were selling but given our luggage weight passed on it. We did get some delicious chips (single potato cut and put on a stick and fried in front of us).. it was good!

I got one decent pano shot of the temple, covered in bits and pieces in previous photos..

A video highlight reel

After walking back to the parking lot it was a relatively shorter drive to the Kyoto train station where we all got our luggage out. Our hotel was right opposite the train station and we were able to get there quickly.

It was still close to 6PM when we got to our hotel. So we checked in and came right out to go see the shopping district. That in the next post..

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Sundar becomes Sundar San at Arashiyama Bamboo Forest

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The previous post in this series is here..

After the deer park there was another ride to the Arashiyama bamboo forest complex. What made this interesting was the dress up.

Our guide told us that we could rent authentic Japanese clothing and take pictures through the forest. We could pay extra and wear it the rest of the day and return it at another branch in Kyoto.

Due to some communication mixup between the front and back of the bus, the men confirmed that we are doing this.. all six of us. As soon as the bus stopped, we were told that the groups that dress up would wait. The guide will direct the rest of the group and come back and get us. It also meant we would have 40 minutes less to spend. That meant walking faster. Sadly we got authentic Japanese sandals as well. This made the walking challenging, especially for the ladies. They were cursing us for most of the walk. We walked for almost two hours in that costume while taking pictures. The pictures came out great!

When we were still in the bus the locals wearing kimonos were wearing sport shoes. Should have noticed that! You will see it in one of the pics. Given there were almost 500 photos just at this place, this gallery is a highlight in itself.

A few shots in landscape format..

The bamboo forest is breathtaking. The crowds do spoil it. Still we got a lot of pictures without the crowd. Folks are nice and patient and let you take pictures without cutting in. Guess everyone becomes polite in Japan.. that included us.

After the fact everyone agreed it was not a bad idea. We returned the costumes right there after coming back but did not have time to get any proper lunch. So everyone had some ice cream and fruit before getting back on the bus.

Our recommendation is you do rent the costume but keep your shoes. Carry the sandals in a bag if required. Just change at places for an authentic photo. This way the walking is not compromised.

here is a video highlight

There was one more stop before we were going to be dropped at the Kyoto train station..

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From Osaka to Kyoto - First stop Nara Deer Park

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The previous post in this series is here..

One of my contributions to this trip planning was an idea to just go from Osaka to Kyoto through a Viator bus tour with three stops on the way. If you are constrained for time this is a great idea as you get a guide for three important places.

We were pros at the breakfast area on Day 3 in the Toyoko Inn as the menu was the same. We went back up to the rooms to get our luggage and it was supposed to be a 15 minute walk to the bus pickup point. The pickup said 8:30. I suggested we leave early and we did leave early. What we saw there was similar to the National Geographic video of Antarctic penguins returning home and everyone trying to find their family all at once.

There were 20 plus buses on the side of the street with guides having flags, close to a 1000 people jostling on the pavement with all their luggage trying to find their guide and bus. The penguins had it easy!

Eventually we found the guide, walked back towards the hotel to our bus and got in. The guide was a Chinese guy who spoke good English. He said it was going to be a long drive to Nara and folks who wanted to sleep can. So I dozed off till we were almost at Nara.

Once we got off the bus we went to the deer park. We got a crash course on handling the deer and the brave ones paid and got deer biscuits to feed the deer. My first attempt did not go well as an aggressive deer bit me in the stomach through my shirt. We put some hand sanitizer on it and kept going. The second attempt was better as a few deer behaved and bowed before accepting the biscuit.

As a group we had fun!

After the deer we went to visit a smaller temple near the parking lot. We were told that there is a giant buddha temple 20 minutes walk away but we will have to come back from Kyoto separately as it was a half day affair to visit that temple complex. We made a note of that and got back on the bus..

Here is a video highlight reel..

The next stop was something else..

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