Monday, November 19, 2007

8/12/07 - Kyoto to Tokyo

Our train back to Tokyo left before lunch that day, so we had time for one more excursion before leaving Kyoto. Robert saw pictures in our guidebooks of a place lined with Torii gates (the orange gates) and figured out that it wasn’t too far from Kyoto. The place is Fushimi Shrine and is dedicated to Inari, the deity of rice and sake, which was logical since the area is known for its sake. The shrine is surrounded by a path a few miles long that is completely lined with hundreds of torii gates donated by businessmen and people in the area. Some of the gates are so close together that you can’t fit between them. We really enjoyed it.

We were sorry to leave Kyoto. There were so many interesting sites and experiences, but it was time to take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We checked back into the Mercure Ginza and then were ready to eat. We found Kua Aiana, a sandwich shop that originated on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Since we’d eaten at the North Shore and Honolulu locations, we felt obligated to try it out in Tokyo!

We walked through the Shinjuku & Harajuku Districts where we saw many high-end shops and found a few things at Oriental Bazaar, including a tea set for Amy. Amy was happy to see a Shakey’s Pizza – it was one of her favorite places growing up, and it was funny to see one outside of Texas! We finished up the day with a visit to the observation deck of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices. It was really crowded and the view was not that impressive, but we were able to see the outline of Mt. Fuji.

No comments: