After having 1 hour sleep I rolled out of bed. My back had been spasming all night keeping me awake.
We headed to Fushimi Inari shrine and i took some pain killers on the way to help release some of the pain so I could walk part of the shrine. It was easy to get to the shrine and even though we arrived before 9 it was packed. The shrine grounds are beautiful and we explored for a bit before deciding to takle the Torii gates.
Fushimi Inari has over 10000 Torrii gates that lead up to the top of a Mountain called Mt. Inari-san which sits 233m above the bottom of the mountain. We started down going through with the 4 million tourists that were there. We detoured off to the side of the shrines just before the gates split into 2 sections. Around here were private bamboo forests and some torii gates with no tours which was lovely.
We headed back onto the path an passed many shrines. It was such a pretty walk. Long story short we ended up climbing to the top of the mountain and completing the whole circuit. The top of the mountain takes forever to get to. It is meant to be about a 5km for the circuit. According to fit bit we did 89 Flights of stairs, and they are very steep in some parts.
At the 6th Station there is a really pretty lookout over Kyoto, which is well worth the hike! Further up however at the very top of the mountain is a shrine and no view. Being up high with no tourists was very nice though.
We headed down the mountain and grabbed some lunch in some of the streets there. At this time my back which had been seizing on and off for 2 day was extra painful so Anthony and I decided to go back tot the hotel to rest whilst the other guys went to Nijo Castle. On the way back to the hotel we stopped into a shrine to get a stamp. Somehow we ended up on a tour which was of this amazing shrine of Daruma. Which is a japnese good luck doll. They were everywhere.
We rested at the hotel before joining the others on the road at Nishiki Market. We went to the Hedgehog cafe which we were all confused about. The hedgehogs were cute and nice to see but it was sad to see them in such an unatural enviroment. They were super cute and super spiky though!
We ended the night with a visit to Yasaka Shrine and a walk around Gion to go Geisha spotting. We found one straight away hurrying to get to an appointment. Gion is really pretty and I wish we had more time to explore.
