More Kyoto, Japan

I had been looking forward to visiting the 10,000 Torii Gates and was not disappointed. On approach, it looked like another Shinto shrine with a Tori gate at the entrance, but once we were well into the property, I saw what all the fuss was about. Fushini Inari is an important Shinto shrine famous for the its thousands of vermillion torii gates which wind through the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari. While we were there, we saw hundreds of visitors including many school children. After leaving the shrine we visited a sake brewery where we were honored to visit with the owner of the brewery who, over cups of teas, explained the process of saking making and then took us into his brewery for a tasting of three of his special sakes.

Later four of us went to a cooking class in a Machiya, a Kyoto style townhome, where we prepared a typical lunch of miso soup, rice with mushrooms, cucumber salad with tiny seaweed, and teriyaki tory.  Several of the dishes were seasoned with light soy sauce, mirin, sake, and either salt or sugar and they were delicious. Our teacher was one of a group of women who are trying to preserve the arts of cooking, sushi, making, and ikebana flower arranging by giving classes in their homes.

Dave went to visit Nijo Castle (the Sho-gun castle), Sanjusangendo Temple with its 1001 full-sized buddha statues, and the Tufukuji Temple's Hojo Garden.

That evening we had a private shabushabu dinner in a ryokan with Meiko and Geiko entertainment. A Meiko is an apprentice geisha, between the ages of 15 and 20, who is schooled in the arts of song and dance, shamisen playing, and entertaining. A geisha, or geiko in Kyoto dialect, is a professional entertainer. Our Meiko was a lovely 17 year old girl who served sake, danced, and played games with our group. This was indeed one of the highlights of our trip as there only 90 geisha left in the Kyoto area.

Entering Torii Gates

Lunch

Japanese (?) Chefs

Meiko Dancing

Meiko