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We woke up in time for laura to watch the world series, and we got some laundry done, so we have enough socks and underwear for another 10 days.
We went back to the super mall train station thing because the density of available restaurants, for late lunch early dinner. Where we ate some Tongkatsu, which is a Kyoto specialty, a breaded fried pork loin. It was delicious, and came with a light shredded cabbage salad, bowl of Miso and a bowl of rice. This place kinda had an olive garden vibe, as the soup, salad, and rice was all you can eat. The meat is breaded in panko, and then fried in vegetable oil so it's not as heavy, and it is served on a little grate, so it's not hanging out in its own grease all day.
Then we hopped the train with our rail passes to Inari, which is where the Fushimi Inari Taisha is. Which is a complex of shrines dedicated to Inari, the idol of rice, and business.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi_Inari-taisha
The first structures were built there in the 800s, with the main shrine being constructed in 1499.
Its original importance was designated when one of the emperors of the 900s decreed that important events be recorded and stored by the monks of prominent shrines, including this one.
This complex is huge and had shrines all over the mountain. Big ones and small ones, cemeteries akin to the ones seen in Tokyo.
They also had fox sculptures everywhere, the fox is considered a messenger. I suppose because healthy communication is a good business practice?
The first part of this walk was very pleasant, walking through the torii that have been donated by businesses across Japan for centuries.
And then we veered off because the sign said "top of mountain" this took is off the main path, through the wood and away from tourists.
It was beautiful, and bring away from guides of tourists is always great. Did I mention it was a national holiday? Culture day, so everyone was going and doing culture stuff, and given this place is 2 stops away from Kyoto, it was pretty busy.
While walking it started getting darker, and the path less defined, fortunately the sub-shrines let us know we were on the right track.
And then we really got off the path, and there were stairs, so many, uneven, illrepaired stairs
But this was good, because it meant we were getting close. Despite the evening chill, we started sweating out all the pork we just ate. And just when it was seemingly too dark to continue, we reached the top.
It was neat, we felt accomplished, but honestly it looked just like all the shrines we came upon on the way up, and there were no views, so it felt a little anticlimactic.
So we headed down the hill. And came o a sweeping view of the city.
And the walked the rest of the way down
I guess we just took the hard way up.
We left the shrine path through a different area than we entered. We were in a residential neighborhood, with sign of the shrine out train station but gaggles it other tourists also lost. We eventually found the shrine and got some stuffed pancake pastries and trained home.
We decided we wanted to check out the bar scene in the area. Unfortunately, not speaking any Japanese or having a fixer, we used trip adviser.
You know who rates stuff on trip advisor? Western tourists.
You know who you should trust for good local bars? Locals.
Notice how those two populations are mutually exclusive.
The first bar we went to was said to be a great craft beer place. That sounded great, we had only had the Japanese domestic macro brews, good to try something new. They had about 8 drafts of crafts, all priced the same based on size of the beer. And all sizes were small, not taster small but like too small to enjoy, and expensive. 11.75USD per pint, except they served like 8 oz.
I really wanted to like this place, it's called Tadg's, it sounds great on the internet, I'm telling you right now, if you are from the US, particularly places that take pride in their craft/micro brew scene,you will be disappointed. The selection is OK, and the prices are through the roof. Honestly stick to 500ml bottles of Sapporo.
I think craft beer here is kind of more like wine bars in the States. Where people pay alot of money, for stuff that is only marginally better than what they normally get. Almost like a Veblen good?
Anyways the second bar completely and utterly made up for that flop. F.S.N. bar. It's a bar ran by a French expat, mostly full of French, less so other foreigners, and a hand full of Japanese. Philippe made a bar that was exactly what he wanted in a bar, because apparently no one else did it that way. And it works. It's above a clubby bar, has a big glass wall behind the bar, with a patio, that he grows vegetables in, that he uses in the one dish type he serves that day. The place is super cozy and we will probably go back because they have a live band coming this weekend.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g298564-d8600265-Reviews-Chez_Philippe_FSN_Bar-Kyoto_Kyoto_Prefecture_Kinki.html
Philippe was super cool, kept his skull chalice full of beer and made a good brandy old fashioned on his first attempt, and a great one on his second.
We got caught up in conversation with Philippe, an Australian guy who works for a yeast factory and has lived and traveled all over, and another French expat that has been living in Kyoto for 26 years.
We talked about all kinds of stuff, US politics, changes in Japan, rise of China, how big the US is, the weather, traveling, and where to eat. The other Frenchman, whose name I don't remember, and may not have even gotten drew us a map, and being as it was 245, and we were all ready to go home soon, he walked us to he restaurants he was talking about to ensure we knew where they were. We then got ramen with him, at a place he had been to periodically over the last quarter century.
He was very greatful for the ramen, we thought the 6USD bowl of soup didn't cover the knowledge he imparted us for the Kyoto area.
After that we walked briskly home, and passed out in the Ryokan.
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