The modern Kyoto. The first picture is the Kyoto Tower, we could see it from our hotel room. We stayed in the Kyoto station area of the city. The picture above is the Kyoto station decorated for Christmas. Yes, they appear to celebrate Christmas in Japan. It is very commercial with all of the stores decorated and playing Christmas music. Japanese people give gifts to children and celebrate by eating KFC and cake?! I am not sure where these traditions originated but I assume it is some sort of mimicking of western traditions.
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| An example of the people flocking to take a picture of the fall colors! A picture of someone taking a picture is the closest we could get. |
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| As you can see, the fall colors at this temple were particularly vibrant! |
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Despite the crowds we were able to relax in the sunshine of the zen gardens at Tofuku-ji temple. After a break, we headed fifteen minutes down the road to Fushimi-inari shrine. It is famous for the long winding trail of tori gates. We didn't have enough day light to hike up the mountain side through the gates but we enjoyed a portion of the trail.
You may be wondering shrine vs. temple, what is the difference? The temples are Buddhist where they worship Buddha and the shrines are Shinto where they worship many gods or spirits. In Japan most people practice a combination of the two beliefs adopting rituals from both.
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| Fushimi-inari is the fox shrine, the fox is believed to be the patron of business (originally the god of rice). |
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| In Japan, it is customary to give "omiyage" when you return from a trip. Here I am shopping for omiyage to give to my coworkers. Usually omiyage is a small individually wrapped edible sweet. I bought fortune type cookies. |
Goodbye Kyoto, we are off on the Shinkansen to Tokyo. We stopped in Tokyo to enjoy a meal with Todd's friend Justin, our late Thanksgiving. Then it was back to Hachinohe...until our next adventure!
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