Shaler Area In Japan: Tuesday, 6/25

This is Roman again writing about our second day in Kyoto. Today our group did a plethora of fun activities, starting with a wagashi making class. We walked from our hotel to a small store that sells wagashi, a traditional Japanese sweet. All of them are beautifully sculpted, and we were shown how to make our own. I didn’t do too well, but had fun nonetheless. We took our wagashi with us as we left to go to our next stop, Fushimi Inari shrine.

During our walk, it started to heat up, much to our displeasure. Sensei told us this is real Japanese summer. Fushimi Inari is a shrine complex situated on a huge mountain , with various shrines scattered on the path up. The paths go through what seem like thousands of red torii gates. Given the heat and the fact that it was a mountain, the climb up was hard, but worth it. Walking up the path took us to astounding views of the Kyoto area. We tried to find relief here and there at small stores that sold ice cream. The shrine at the top was gorgeous.

We climbed back down and headed to Kyoto station, a modern building in contrast to traditional Kyoto. Here, we admired the views of the city and walked through the many stores located in the station, and took a short rest.

The last stop took us to a Japanese mall, where somehow we were able to spend about two hours. Most of us spent that time in the arcade, and towards the end we crammed into a photo booth to take what’s called purikura. Think instant photo booths but manipulating the photo after. It was a lot of fun.

Finally, we had dinner at a restaurant where they have deep fryers set into the table. It’s all you can eat, so you grab various meats and vegetables and deep fry them at your own pace. After over 90 minutes there, some (sensei) eating much more than others, we headed back to the hotel. Looking forward to tomorrow but not the day after.