As usual, coffee was the first morning stop. Met Mr. Horn at a local shop, drank a cup, and then headed to our first stop of the day.
To-ji Templ consists of several gates, temples, and a pagoda. These were far more impressive than the temples we saw in Tokyo, but then we didn’t see all of them. These were the types I was looking forward to with the wooden structures that fit together without any fasteners and such. Each temple was filled with Buddhist statues. No photos or sketching were allowed inside.
After a quick gift shop purchase, we headed for the Nidec Kyoto Tower. Their, we had a 360 view of the city, and we were also able to get our first stamps that you can find mainly at train stations and similar landmarks.
From there, it was lunch time. We went to a local ramen shop to eat. Then a quick hotel break to charge phones and prepare for a late afternoon walk to Mount Inari for the Senbon Torii.
Senbon Torii, aka Thousand Torii Gates, was a trip, to say the least. 40-minute walk to get here, and we probably walked longer than that to get from the entrance to the scenic overlook.
At the first half, it was hard to get a photo without anyone else in it. That slowly changed as you went up and through the gates along the mount to the various shrines. I think there were more than a thousand gates.
We didn’t make it all the way to the top. The elevation change we traversed was easily 300 feet, or at least felt like it.
Then, it was a long trek back to the hotel with a supply stop at Lawson. Didn’t make it back out after that, and I slept hard last night!
Steps this day: 26,146
slow draw is... 