Day trip to Kyoto! We had to make good use of our JR passes so we planned a day trip to Kyoto. We originally were planning to go to Osaka to check out Universal Studios but I was a bit theme parked out so now I have a good excuse to visit Osaka during my next visit. The JR pass allows you to purchase passes on the Hikari. Our train was at 7:15 am so we had to be up pretty early since we also had to take the train to the Shinagawa station to take the Kyoto train as well.

Bright and early in our neighborhood…heading to the station. Crows still cawing away.

View from my train seat. Lots of business men on the train headed for work, I felt a bit bad for them having to commute for hours each day to and from work.

I’m still going to do a separate food post for Kyoto but the bento pictures should go with the train rides! I went with a Chinese bento (of course I did) and it was delicious! It would have been better warmed up but I didn’t have that option. I’m kind of surprised they sell it cold.

Check this shot out! I’m so lucky. I was watching the other side in envy because they had the window closest to Mount Fuji. Then suddenly, I saw that I had my chance and took the picture. Magnificent…

Fushimi Inari Shrine – this is a shrine that’s famous for it’s path lined with hundreds of traditional gates. It’s so beautiful. We didn’t make it to the top. Can you tell by this last picture how many people there were? It was madness. There were also a lot of selfie sticks which I really didn’t appreciate, they would just stop suddenly in the middle of the path, swing out that stick and start taking pictures. The path is crowded enough! And gosh, there were so MANY Chinese tourists! Their loud yelling kind of took away from the quiet environment.

Before you enter the shrine, there is a long street filled with different gift shops and food stands. That was fun and neat to check out. Here’s a picture between the street shops, it was pretty neat.

We headed to Nishiki Market after we finished at the Shrine. I’m sharing more of that tomorrow since it’s mainly food…lol. I didn’t take as much pictures as I wanted. I believe this is the Kyoto Tower. I got a shot of it as we walked back to Kyoto Station.

I wish I took pictures of the mochi I bought! I love Kyoto mochi. It looks like a won ton pi mochi folded over the filling. The mochi is kind of thin so you can see the filling. It’s delicious. I love the black sesame flavor. Check out this blog, she took a picture of the mochi I’m talking about!

Dinner Bentos for the train ride back to Tokyo. Tasted good! Kind of funny that both our full meals were train station bentos. Hmm…food post coming soon!