Another day in Japan, another day travelling between cities! Today we waved bye to Tokyo (for now) and set off for Kyoto where I had booked an Airbnb flat one stop from Kyoto central station. But first we had to get our stuff together in the ryokan… It transpired that my mum was incapable of actually wearing her backpack on her back… You know, like you’re supposed to… The last time we’d travelled with her carrying her backpack like a baby, we ended up stopping every few minutes, so this time I decided enough was enough and wore my normal backpack and daypack attached together on my back, and my mum’s pack on my front, leaving her to simply carry her tiny daypack (think a primary school child) and her cloth handbag. Easy yes? Well I think the photos speak for themselves (!)

Slowly made it over to Tokyo station, and had a lovely scenic ride on the bullet train to Kyoto. I had ensured when booking our seats that we would be sitting on the right hand side of the train, so mum could try and get a view of Fuji. As we rounded the corner, I tried to point it out to her, but cloud was enshrining the top so mum didn’t understand when I was attempting to explain to her just how tall it was. It was nearly out of sight when… The summit of Fuji emerged from the cloud, and we could see the peak encircled by a halo of fluffy clouds. We arrived into Kyoto, jumped on the Nara line trains one stop to Tofukuji, and found our compact flat was just round the corner from the station, most conveniently!

We then headed straight out to see Fushimi-Inari shrine before dark. It is just absolutely breathtaking – obviously there are a lot of tourists visiting it, but even still as you proceed up the mountainside through the gates, you get the occasional moment of being completely and entirely alone, a brief period of solitude where you can just look around and marvel at this beautiful place. And then of course a surge of tourists come through all shouting in their respective tongues, children going berserk, dogs running around, and the moment is gone. But life is just a series of moments I guess so couldn’t ask for any more 😊 At least there wasn’t a child pissing in a train carriage unlike China!

That evening, mum wanted to have some gyoza (panfried dumplings) so we went to a place called Tiger Gyoza. We had three types of gyoza, our favourite being spicy pork ones made with edible charcoal so they were black in colour. Perfect accompanied by a beer 😉