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Planes, Trains, and Shrines: A Day in Kyoto



We spent a literal 24 hours just getting here. 2 flights (connecting in Detroit with a heart-stoppingly short 40 minute layover), plus 2 trains (1 hour from airport to Tokyo, 2 hours more to Kyoto). Coupled with the 13 hour time difference, we stumbled from Monday to Wednesday. We checked into our hotel around 8 pm and passed out by 8:30, dead to the world.

Guess who was wide awake at 4:30 a.m.? Yeah. We’re still pretty screwed up sleep-wise. We waited for the complimentary hotel breakfast to open at 6:30 and then feasted like animals. We’re staying at one of the swankiest hotels I’ve been to, the Ritz Carlton Kyoto, thanks to Kyle’s Marriott points. It’s beautiful, though if I was paying full rate I’d definitely go for a Ryokan with that kind of budget instead - the place we stayed last time was called Shiraume & was unforgettable. 

After our obscene breakfast it was still only 7 a.m. We decided to embrace our early rising Japan selves and go to Fushimi Inari Shrine ahead of the crowds. We’d been on our last trip to a Japan but the crowds were intense and we didn’t get very far. This time we vowed to see the whole thing and let me tell you, that’s a lot of climbed flights of stairs.


I absolutely recommend coming to this shrine before 8 a.m. if you can. We basically had the walk to ourselves for long stretches of time, and it really changes the experience. The Shrine is composed of thousands of orange gates that climb upwards to the peak of a summit. You can just walk through small stretches of gates or take them all the way to the top, which is what we did this time. When we left around 10, the crowds were already forming.





After the shrine, we rode the subway back to central Kyoto and walked around Nishiki market. The best thing we tried were the soy milk donuts from Konna Monja, but everything we tried was great. We also got drinks from Rocca that were very Instagramy/adorable but messy as hell to drink and probably not worth the fuss and effort. We walked back to our hotel afterwards, feeling like our feet were on fire, and then filled the tub with bath salts and steaming water for a long foot soak. It’s around 5:30 now and we’re getting ready to grab dinner and call it another early night.

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