Day 3 - South Kyoto

Fushimi Inari

Gion

Shabu shabu

omurice & curry

stroll along kamo river

fushimi inari

We've arrived!

A long way to the top. Most people don't make it to the top, but enough people do.

We made it!

A little shrine at the top for praying

You can pull your fortune stick out of a metal can and look up the fortune on the board

Not sure if I trust the google translation

You can donate money and get your name on one of the gates!

The food stalls at the bottom looked very enticing after we worked up an appetite from the hike

In all honesty, the food here looked better than they tasted. There is better quality food elsewhere.

The endless red gates is quite an unique experience! This is another one of the top 3 destinations in Kyoto. The entire hike up is 2.5mi (4km) long, and the altitude is 764ft (233m). It felt good to work up a sweat and enjoy the hike!

Voyagers Tips: This is a repeating theme now… Get here EARLY! We got here at 7am and there were already a decent number of people here. The red gates are open 24hrs/day so get here even earlier if you can.

Gion & Toji Temple

We visited Gion on a Sunday morning at 10am and found it to be surprisingly empty with all the shops closed. This is the challenge with visiting the landmarks really early in the morning… there’s a gap between when you leave the landmarks and when the city wakes up. Oh well, maybe next time.

We also had Toji Temple on the itinerary, as it is known for the tallest pagoda in Japan. By this point, however, our family was all “templed out” and we decided to head back to our hotel for a cat nap. Maybe next time.

Shabu Shabu at Kawaramachi garden mall

Wagyu beef shabu shabu!! So good!

Unlimited veggies. This was Megan's favorite restaurant from the whole trip.

The 7th & 8th floor of the mall are food halls, and we found this restaurant gem here on the 7th floor! The price was very reasonable thanks to the exchange rate at our time of visit, the wagyu beef was to die for! Unlimited veggie sides, rice and ice cream was really good too. The fixed portion was more than enough meat for us, no need for the AYCE beef. This was Megan’s favorite meal in Kyoto!

omurice & curry at hohoho-za

We had not yet tried omu-rice and Japanese curry yet... this spot checked off two boxes at once!

This was Maren's favorite dish!

No English menu, but Google Translate did the trick.

The food was great at this little gem! Truth be told, we wanted to go to the famous omurice place - Kichi Kichi Omurice, which is a youtube sensation. We tried making reservation a month in advance and could not find any opening, so maybe you’ll have better luck. Hohoho-Za was a great find though, and we went there at 5pm to get a spot in this tiny restaurant. Delicious omurice and curry!

stroll along the kamo river

The path along the river is a nice stroll in the evenings and you see people taking walks here. The girls were bothered by the tiny bugs flying around though.