Japan: Kyoto Day 2- Torii Gates Day

Ok, so ever since I first saw pics of Kyoto, I've wanted to see the bright orange torii gates of the Fushimi Inari Shrine, so naturally, that was going to be our first day.  We made the (extremely wise) decision to leave the stroller in our hotel room for the day, stuffed Aliana (she is a chunk, if you haven't already noticed) into her Moby wrap, headed over to the station and hopped on the JR line to the Inari stop.  As soon as we got on the train, it started raining, but I was determined not to let that slow us down... about 7 minutes later we arrived at our stop and followed the bright orange posts to the shrine.  

Just about as soon as we found the first row of gates, the skies cleared, and I was a very happy girl.  

I was amazed at the detail on each of the posts, and how beautifully the green all around us complemented the bright orange of the gates. 

Ok, so bear with me, I went a little nuts on gate pics.

but really, how could I resist?  They were beautiful.  We all loved them.

These were cool, but we don't know what they were about... any thoughts?

As we were walking up the mountain through the gates, we came across a bunch of Korean tour groups who loved taking pics of Aliana.  One group even gave her a fan (we were all drenched with sweat at this point), so the following is her Memoirs of a (Shy Baby) Geisha photo shoot.  (piece of trivia- a scene from the movie was filmed here!)

As we were climbing the hill, a Korean tour guide who wanted to practice his English offered to take our picture, so here is our token family photo:

Here I was trying to keep a mosquito off her toes.

At this point, Aliana decided she needed a little refreshment and so did we.  We fortunately found a little tea shop a bit further up and Mike and I had sodas while Aliana nursed. 









We eventually made it to (what we decided was) the top of the mountain, where you could see the sprawling city of Kyoto...

...and then headed back down, stopping at a few shrines on the way...

Aliana loves hangin with her crazy daddy.

 We quickly decided to head back to Kyoto for lunch at the station... and in the A/C.  Again, we lucked out with a wonderful tempura and sashimi lunch on the floor, and Aliana enjoyed her pureed pears.  

Sometimes, it's so great not to be a baby.

 


A few hours and a nap later, we headed back out to explore Kyoto on foot, and came across a beautiful temple. 

Aliana loved taking a break on the cool temple floor.

and then we got told by one of the guards that there were no pictures allowed in that area of the temple... at least it was post photo-shoot.  

Aliana did so well in Kyoto.  I think she was ready to see the orange gates, too.  She handled the sweat dripping from her face without protest, whereas her mom was a bit more vocal about it....  

Aliana's eating habits have changed a bit on our travels... At home, we just make all of Aliana's food, as we have yet to find cheap baby food options in Korea... we're not so sure what Korean babies eat- kimchi?  We spent a fortune on a ton of imported baby food to take with us on this trip - the same brands we know in the states, and bought enough for a week, but Aliana really hasn't liked it very much... a few bites and she's over it.   The afternoon that these pictures were taken, she just wanted to take her spoon with her everywhere.  As we were crossing the street, an older Japanese women looked incredibly concerned about Aliana's spoon- maybe worried that she'd gag herself with it?  I certainly wasn't going to take it away from her.  She was holding onto it for dear life. 


...that is, until she dropped it off the ledge of the temple.  

Mike had to climb down past some very confused construction workers to get it back.  


We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling through the streets of Kyoto while the heat of the day began to cool...


More tomorrow!