Location 5.20 am, dawn & sunrise
Mizuru is the handling port for Kyoto. As it was a 2.5 hour trip down to Kyoto (that’s with a 15 minute rest stop in the middle) we had a 7.30 am gathering for the excursion. Everything much smoother now, not having to tackle immigration and customs. Just had to have our passport photocopy with the immigration sticker on the back!
As there are a lot of mountains we went through 22 tunnels on the way. The other surprise was that their expressway was only 2 lanes!
Our first stop was the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine. However, it was a 20 minute walk over several roads and 2 railway tracks. I set my own snail pace, lol. I had a map and knew the destination, so I just trailed way, way behind. Managed to get stopped at a road with a red pedestrian crossing and then by trains at both tracks.
I did get to the shrine, but not the multiple inri gates which were quite a distance off. There were lots of girls in geisha outfits. The costumes can be hired for a few hours and must be the thing to do!
Our guide said that it was quite quiet today, usually much more crowded!! Her definition of a crowd and mine are very different, lol.
From there we went to Arashiyama, another 50 minute drive.
One photo spot apparently is the Togetsu-kyo Bridge and then the Kimono Forest. The kimono’s light up at night!
Then it started raining and even now at 8.30 pm and a long way north of Kyoto and out at sea, it is still raining!
This was in a back yard when going back to the bus from the kimono’s.
There were lots of shops and restaurants from and to the bus, obviously one of the reasons for stopping here, lol. Everyone got back to the bus rather wet. My shoes were horrible as lots of unavoidable puddles! The driver was funny. He had started the day with a small towel draped around his neck as it was hot and humid, then it migrated up to his head for the rain! Mind you the rain did drop the temperature down from 31 C to 23 C.
I did like their wet road warning signs! Lots of umbrellas to be seen returning to the ship and 22 tunnels again!
Not doing an excursion tomorrow. Really pleased about that as the last two days have been very long ones!