Better late than never? Better short than not at all? Keep those questions in mind for the few seconds it takes to breeze through this week's post.

Tiring of getting lost alone and having no one to blame but myself, I recruited one of my roommates (who shares my days off) to be my travel buddy. For this week's inaugural adventure we headed off to Kyoto to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine (which neither of us had seen yet.) We started the day in downtown Kyoto with a stop at Hongwanji Temple (home to the world's largest wooden structure, the main temple hall.) We then headed to South Kyoto. Anyone who's seen the movie version of Memoirs of a Geisha knows the shrine we went to. It's the one with all the torii gates (it's another one of the places that is seen on a lot of travel posters promoting Japan.) After seeing enough torii to last a lifetime we retired to the Gion (the old geisha district) for a light supper at an izakaya (Japanese pub.) A few more pictures on Flickr in addition to those below.

A dragon shaped fountain at Hongwanji Temple in central Kyoto.

It wouldn't be a trip to Kyoto without a picture or two of Kyoto tower.

Whats that? That ancient temple was destroyed? It's okay we can make a new ancient temple.
Also pictured, my disillusion with every "historic" temple in Japan.

There are various types of gates at the Inari shrine. Lacquered wood, painted wood, stone.

That's a lot of torii.

The "back" of the gates are inscribed with benefactors names and dates of instillation.
Benefactors donate gates in the hope of receiving a blessing of prosperity.

The dates are written using the imperial calender.
At center: Heiwa 17, 10th Month. (October, 2004)

A shrine with many small fox statues.
Also, small torii which can be purchased for about 1,000yen each.

Stone gate with fall leaves.

Next weekend the roommate and I are going to Mt. Koya in Wakayama prefecture (three hours by train.) Koya is one of the most sacred places in Japan. The plan is to stay overnight at a Buddhist temple and have breakfast with the monks before heading home. Should be "enlightening." In two weeks time, on my four day weekend, I'll looking forward to visiting the Tango Peninsula in the North part of Kyoto prefecture (on the Japan sea.) Til next time:

Jaa Mata Ne.