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

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..

The busiest place in Osaka - Dotombori

The previous post in this series is here..

After being kicked out of Katsuoji temple right when they closed, we were lucky enough to get two taxis to take us straight to the busiest place in Osaka. It took us more than an hour in evening traffic to get there.

Katsuoji folks were ruthless. They did not allow us to use restrooms there as they closed the temple on time. One car had to do a restroom stop at a store on the way in busy traffic. Japanese drivers also are very strict about time = money. Eventually we all got there to the same location, a bridge with a mural on it.

Almost all of Osaka seemed to have converged there! It was really busy with so many folks. The river front had boat rides which we decided to skip. We walked through the streets and saw the restaurants.

We were looking for anything vegetarian. The kids were already like “another Indian place?” and I said “why not?”. There was one place which was like a Bhavikas that was highly rated. We had to go through some small stairs to get to it and it was a small space with 16 to 18 seats tops and every seat filled up while we were there.

The food was amazing! Even the kids agreed. After a nice meal, we walked back to the busy streets. It was time to head back to the Toyoko Inn in Osaka Namba for one last night of stay.. We did stop by at the busy streets and take photos with the night lights before closing out a busy travel day…

Here are some photos from a memorable evening.

I thought the photo in front of the Glico mural was great. Then Jr. told me “the insta spot in on a different bridge Appa!”. San was like so what? My reaction was “When we told our kids that they have to go around pulliyaar ummachchi clockwise, they didn’t argue. Today we shouldn’t argue when told that the photo has to be on a different bridge. There are rules in the Insta world and we have to respect them now!”

The same ladies who said there is absolutely no room for any more food at the Indian restaurant, stopped by this place which sold some kind of fruity kuzhi paniyaaram. They finished it between them and acted like it was no big deal. That has been put in deep memory. I ate half an extra butter naan to not waste it. It is water under the Dotombori bridge now..

A video highlights reel of our time at Dotombori river front..

This place was busy and noisy but an incredible experience!

Yogagraphy and portraits in Bora Bora lagoon

The previous post in this series is here..

We did spend time in the morning before breakfast taking photos in the lagoon with me doing yoga poses and later in the evening before dinner. This time we came a good hour before sunset time and got some amazing pics. It was not raining and that was a big plus! Will strongly recommend the Royal Hotel in Bora Bora. Fantastic setup, fantastic people!

Earlier in the morning.. or I should say way earlier than sunrise, the roosters that kept us up, ended up right outside our sliding door. I got to drink tea watching them and this cat that wandered around the premises.

The place was full of trees, especially Badam trees.. Told the family they were Badam and they did not believe me. Later we saw a sign naming the trees and was vindicated! The other tree was a “fish poison” tree that is actually toxic to humans. Good they label trees so we learned something.

Here are the photos..

This is a small subset. Had so many good photos did not know which ones to pick..

You can give your camera to any random stranger and get a click and it is frame worthy in this place !!

A video highlights reel..

We had a great dinner after taking pictures. The service was fast on the day after Christmas because they had more staff on hand. We went back to our rooms and went to bed. We had done our exercise for the day in the water..or at least that is how I consoled myself after that heavy dinner and dessert!