Kyoto Day 5 - Nara & Fushimi Inari

Sunday was finally our first rain-free day. It was still a little overcast, but the heat was back on! Temps jumped from a high of around 85 each day during the typhoon, to 85 by 7am. *sob* And because my nephews had returned to town the night prior from 4-5 day fishing trip...we were thrilled they could join us! 

The plan was to meet up at Kyoto Station. Normally, while there, you rush to and from train lines, and don't have much time to enjoy the beauty of this soaring, modern structure. It's not what you'd expect in historic, cultural Kyoto, but you can't begrudge citizens their need of a new and efficient train station, can you? Well, technically it was 'new' when we lived there back in 97-00, now it's more 'used'. :-)  But it still looks as impressive now as it did back then, with its endless escalators climbing up to the sky!

Do they not look like they will touch the sky?

Once at the top, because it was still early (about 7:15am), it was 'only' about 85 degrees- I was able to show my mom and Ryan the sky garden. Both had seen it before, but again, Dori and her grandson forgot everything, so they rediscovered it all!

Hard to read, but it's called Happy Terrace. And we were indeed happy to be there. One of us more than the other (the other looks forced to be happy by his mean, Asian mom).

The 360 degree views atop the station are never a disappointment, and I was thrilled to see a green roof next door! Kyoto has come such a long way in green initiatives. Cigarette smoke used to be so prevalent there in the 90s, but these days, I'm lucky to encounter 5% of what I used to.

Reunited and it feels so good!!! We'd only not seen them for a week and a half or so, but it's always fun to hook up with the boys in Kyoto! Their bilingual language skills mean I get to turn my brain off a bit, which is nice!

We caught a JR train to Nara, about 45-50 min. away by express train...made enjoyable by the fact that the three boys were all on their own pocket wifi playing Fortnight.

This trip was a nice deja vu of sorts, as I took the boys with Rich on their first trip to Nara about five years prior.

One of my favorite silly things about Nara....their pothole covers!

Once we got to the deer park, I bought the first four sets of specialized, grassy senbei crackers for the boys to feed the deer. The deer were as aggressive as ever! If I've been to Nara a dozen times, they have terrified me a dozen times with their pushiness, nibbles and as we learned on this trip- jumping on you!

Someone made the mistake of buying fried chicken skewers for himself for lunch later, which he placed in his backpack. This surprised me, until I learned that deer are not vegetarian! They're omnivores! Who knew Bambi likes to eat fried chicken?!

Because I wasn't quick enough to dispense my cracker packs to the boys and my mother, the deer stalked me and started to eat my shirt. This is not a surprising move on their part, but it's always scary. Because underneath that very thin fabric of mine, is some very juicy, succulent flesh that is likely bursting in flavor. Once those deer get a taste of me...it'd be over. I'll be a pile of bones within an hour. 

Calm, cool Riki...no shirt nibbling or backpack eating going on with him. What the heck?

They're also gentle as can be for grandma...

And oh, look! It's sweet gentle Bambi, gently nibbling from Ryan's finger tips...

But when it came to Keni and I...

They had no problem hoofing Keni in the junk because he wasn't handing out crackers fast enough! Look how they all scattered after once he yelped in pain!

Then later...same thing! BAM! Right in his nethers! I may never get grand neices and nephews at this point.

I suppose the groin was better than the face though! Riki got hooved on his cheek...you can see the mark!

The deer are mostly very aggressive. The few calm photos we got were unusual. For the most part, you're frantically running away to avoid having them eat your map, your shirt, your fingers, jumping on you, etc. But once you get accustomed to their heathen behavior, it's still quite fun, which is why we bought TWELVE packs of senbei crackers that day.

Once we finished in Nara, we hopped a JR train back to Kyoto and headed over to Fushimi Inari. It's one of my favorite shrines for a number of reasons, but I'd never taken the boys or my mom and Ryan and was excited to take them there. Sadly, the boy's had to hustle back home for a charity dinner event, so they couldn't join us.

The walk up to the temple from the train station

Handkerchiefs for sale along the way...and sparrow. Still LOTS of grilled sparrow there!

There are a number of things that make Fushimi Inari unique and one of my favorites...but rather than list them all out, just click on the temple name for a link to Wikipedia. The pictures also do a great job of showcasing what makes this temple one of a kind.