Kyoto: Day 4

Photo of the Day - Power Rangers

Late Start

So the day started later than we wanted.  But only had one stop that we wanted to make that day so it was alright.  The last night in Kyoto, we decided to have a small party.  So we went to the local Family Mart and got a bottle of what now has become our representative drink, Suntory Whiskey.  Why?  Not because it tastes good, or is particularly special or cheap.  Because that’s the brand Bill Murray promotes in “Lost in Translation”, so it must be good.  Anyways, after one bottle, the gang went out for more, but I opted to stay in, shower and sleep.  The rest of the night for them is only what I gathered from hearsay afterwards.  But somehow Baptiste and Axel road on one bike, Laura threw up somewhere by the shores of the Kyoto river and on her backpack strap and Jacob fulfilled one of his dreams and successfully accomplished a covert operation of what I shall call as freelance public wall decorating.  They came back safe and with some good stories, so it all worked out.

Torii tunnels in Fushimi-Inari Taisha

This temple may seem familiar for some of you.  It was featured in the film, “Memoirs of a Geisha” and is a pretty iconic image of Japanese temples.  The weather was pretty cold that day and the lighting was not all that great for picture taking but we made do with what we had.  It was sort of uncomfortable because the hike is really quite long.  A winding trail of maybe 2 or 3 miles up and down around a mountain, it’s a decent hike and in cold weather that means one thing, working up a cold sweat.  It’s pretty much as amazing as it seems in pictures.  These red hand-engraved arches just span for miles up and down a mountain.  It’s truly unbelievable how much work they’ve had to do to build this.  Each one is built out of wood and each one is unique.  There is a very obvious difference between some of the arches that have been repainted and preserved and those that still need work.  We passed a man painting one of the columns and it was interesting seeing the preservation work first hand.

The Tradition Continues

Of course, once we get into a decent clearing, we once again must attempt our group hand stand pose.  This time, it was just fated not to be.  We tried many takes and just could not get a very good shot, but at least we tried.  This is the best one we got.  After some other shots and one jumping shot that has become also an iconic shot, we make our way down the mountain.

Fail.

Labyrinth

I’ve actually always been a little fascinated by labyrinths.  I just to draw little mazes when I was younger and I would dream of designing some disorientating huge maze where people would get lost in.  Something about it just fascinates me.  So coming down we experienced our moments of being lost.  All the maps we read were in Japanese and every path were lined with the exact same red arches.  After a little debate, we eventually made the right choices together and made our way successfully down the mountain.  But I can imagine if you can’t successfully navigate out of the temple, it could be one pretty scary experience.  The repetitive read gates get almost hypnotic and at night, the temple can get pretty eerie.

On Top of the World

The last shot is at the middle summit of the temple.  It’s a great vantage point of the whole city and best of all has a great large red arch primed and ready to make for a great picture.  This was really a picture perfect ending to a successful trip.  I’ll be honest, I had my doubts when I first embarked on this trip.  Many uncertainties threatened the to make the trip an unpleasant one, but we made it a good trip thanks to a combination of good fortune and an insatiable spirit for adventure.