The next morning I headed to the train station, intending to visit Fushimi–Inari shrine again, now that the weather had cleared up.
A short ride later, and I arrived.
The conditions couldn’t have been much more different as I headed through the shrine and toward the gates.
I continued up the path.
It took a while for me to appreciate the scale of the park, as I continued to climb through the orange gates.
The time and effort to construct this shrine seemed unfathomably massive to me, as I continued up.
Eventually, I reached a stunning lookout spot.
According to the signs, I had hardly made a dent in the full path. I continued further up, and was treated to more spectacular views.
With time ticking on, I decided to head back down, having planned a day trip out to Nara.
On the way out, I made a detour to a coffee shop on my to–do list.
Vermillion
- ¥
- Price
- Coffee
- Place
Vermillion was a cute, Melbourne–inspired espresso bar. It didn’t just look the part, the long black I had was well extracted and flavoursome.
I headed back to Kyoto station and took a train towards Nara.
Soon, I was riding through rural Kyoto landscapes.
Eventually the train I was riding on reached the end of its line, so I waited for another.
Before long, I was whipping through rural Kyoto scenery (which seemed far more summery than the snowy weather I’d experienced the day before), on my way to Nara.
In my mind, I was sort of relating the train ride from Kyoto to Nara to taking a train from Perth down to Mandurah or Rockingham, and was half expecting it to arrive in a small little town.
But of course. That wasn’t the case at all.
I wandered through Nara, heading in the direction of the deer park.
I stopped in for a late lunch at Mellow café.
Mellow Café
- ¥¥
- Price
- Yoshoku
- Restaurant
After a rather tasty pizza, I continued my journey east towards the deer park.
The scenery became increasingly rural as I reached the park.
The deer were quietly inquisitive and very comfortable around humans.
After feeding, patting and photographing many a deer, I headed onwards. The landscape was quaint and reminded me somehow of Australian outback.
With sunset of my last day in Kyoto a few hours away, I decided it was time to start making my way back to Kyoto, to catch the sunset at Kyoto Tower.
I headed back towatds the station...
After a brief wait at the station, I was back on my way to Kyoto...
I arrived, and headed north from the station to Tokyo tower. There, I got a stunning view of the city as sunset approached.
I briefly popped back to my hotel, before setting off for dinner.
I popped down to the cube eatery and had a delicious steak omellete.
Kitchen Gon
- ¥¥
- Price
- Bistro
- Restaurant
I walked off the very filling meal by wandering around the adjacent shopping center, taking in the spectacular sights.
I made my way back towards the hotel.
