Turns out it was a massive shinto shrine. And it is absolutely filled with foxes and torii gates. It's also on a small mountain. You can get right to the top of the mountain using steps and walkways, many of which are marked by torii gates. We didn't get anything like that far. I think we probably got about a third of the way up. That was far enough for my knees!
Foxes, guarding the rice granaries, bringing messages from the gods and bearing good luck:
Torii gates (and another fox!):
It was all rather lovely.
We had brunch in a little cafe, which we chanced upon when heading back to the station. Smashed avocado on toast with salad. I had a poached egg with mine. Lindsey had bacon with hers. Sandy's was unadorned. It was all very Australian - one of the options was cheese and vegemite on toast :-D
We hopped on another train and made our way to the other side of Kyoto to visit the Golden Temple. It too was very lovely but the experience was all rather structured. In the Fox temple you could roam around at will. The Golden Temple had a one way walk. No roaming allowed! A pity, really. The temple itself was beautiful but so too were the grounds. We are a week or two early for the full effect of the autumn colours, but even so, the trees were beautiful in the sunshine.
We walked back to the station, having got to the temple by bus (our first experience on a Japanese bus!). It was slightly less than 3 km and all downhill. I think we all agreed, when we got to the station, that next time we would take the bus back. Our legs, hips, knees, backs were all beginning to protest. Not quite 18,000 steps yesterday, and a mere 33 floors. I'm sure my feet shouldn't be protesting quite this much!
Not expecting temples or shrines today. We are on the move again.
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