After our success taking a day trip to Nara Japan, Ashley and I decided to head to Arashiyama Japan and Kyoto Japan.    Both of these cities are side by side and just north of Osaka.   Ashley was intent on seeing the “bamboo forest” so we headed to Arashiyama Japan first.

Getting to Arashiyama Japan is similar to getting to Nara Japan.  We boarded a metro train, made a couple switches and then we were on our way up to Arashiyama.  The total trip took about 45 minutes by train so it wasn’t bad at all.  Once we made it to Arashiyama we were greeted by a large river with a lake above the dam.   The area seemed to be a popular tourist area and there were lots of people who seemed to be from out of town.

We made our way through the small town and Ashley stumbled across a place she found online.  She was interested in picking up some Christmas gifts (which I now have to haul around from place to place) so we stopped in.  We got what we needed and we were on our way!   Before hitting the bamboo forest we stopped and had some quick street food.

As we made our way into the bamboo forest it seemed that everyone was from out of town.  To be honest a lot of the photos we had seen online made the place look a lot more amazing than it was.  It was still a cool place to visit but the greens didn’t really pop like you see in the photos.  Perhaps we hit it at the wrong time of year!

After we made it through the bamboo forest we had a bit of a hike to get back to a train station to get to Kyoto.  We wound our way through random city streets and got a nice taste of what local life was.  Along the way we stumbled across a place called Jerry’s pies.  We were both hungry for a snack so we decided to stop in.   The pies were perfect snacks which could be eaten in just a few bites.   They were absolutely awesome and we both really enjoyed them!

Content with our snack we made our way down to the train station.  We hopped on and quickly made our way to Kyoto.  We enjoyed our time in Arashiyama so much that we lost track of time and ended up at the main Kyoto station without a lot of time.  Since we were limited we decided to hit the Fushimi Inari Shrine.  This is the most famous shrine in Kyoto so we didn’t want to miss it.  Back on the train we went and we made our way a little further south into Kyoto.

Upon exiting the train the Fushimi Inari Shrine was right in front of us.  We stopped into a 7eleven to grab some water and that turned out to be a lucky decision.   All the photos we had seen of the Fushimi Inari Shrine were of the orange pillars like the one below.   What we didn’t realize is that there are thousands of them and they extend all the way through a decent around a mountain side.

It took us a while but we finally managed to make it all the way to the top of the Fushimi Inari Shrine.  At the top there isn’t really a view or anything too notable.  There are some religious places to….I’m not really sure, but it was religious and there was incense as usual.   We were exhausted but happy we had finally made it to the top.    Time to grab the selfie stick and highlight our accomplishment!

That excitement quickly turned to sorrow as Ashley fumbled with her selfie stick and pushed her phone out of the selfie stick.  The phone went crashing down face first on a rock and it was obvious things weren’t going to end well.  This was a brand new phone after her last suffered 3 deaths (pool, run over by cars, dropped) and she ended up replacing it with a new one.    She sulked as she picked up her phone and sure enough it was cracked all over.

I was trying my best to play it cool….but not doing a terribly good job at it.  We sat there staring at the phone screen for a few tense moments each of us vividly remembering phone screens previously lost over these last few months.   The grief was almost too much at this point and we were surely headed to an Apple store later that evening with a hefty repair bill in order.  Suddenly out of nowhere Ashley screams “WAIT!!!!!!”  She cheerfully peels away at the screen remembering that she purchased a glass cover for her phone to avoid the previous incidents.   She successfully pulled away the cover and viola, the phone screen was in perfect condition.    We each sighed in relief having triumphed not only the mountain but also another busted phone screen!

We made it back down the from the top of the Fushimi Inari Shrine.  The nice thing about the hike was that there were two ways to go up to the top and both sides were pretty different.   At this point we had been walking all day and we were both ready to take it easy!  We hoped on the train and headed back for Osaka!