Chapter 9 · Japan

The Gates of Fushimi Inari

Last day in Kyoto: thousands of torii gates, a new friend from Poland, and a burger worth the nap

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Today was our last day in Kyoto. We got an early start, but not too early since we only had one place we wanted to explore. We were moving at a more leisurely pace. Our goal was to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine — to walk the path through the thousands of vermilion torii gates.

The start of the path was crowded, like Atlanta traffic — literally stopped while tourists paused to take pictures or walked at different paces. It’s like a dang bottleneck. However, keep going and the crowds began to thin. Part of the path was closed for a detour right in this crowded area, and EVERYONE had to stop and take pictures standing in front of the empty path. If I had a bullhorn, I probably would’ve used it here — because my road (or path) rage was ready to show how we do things back home in traffic.

Literally once we got past that detour, the rest of the path was pleasant. We even found the other end of the detour, where only 3 or 4 people were in line to take pictures. It’s honestly worth it because the empty path is so beautiful. We watched several social influencer wannabes model for a hundred pictures — girls and guys — to which we had to quietly laugh.

This led to a new friendship with a solo traveler behind us in line who was visiting from Poland and understood our conversation. She couldn’t help but laugh along with us. So we took turns taking quick pictures of each other when it was our turn, then spent the next 2 hours meandering through the many torii gates until we reached the top of the mountain.

We talked about our visit in Japan, compared our hometowns, shared interesting trivia, checked out the two viewpoints, and just enjoyed each other’s company. We reached the top of the mountain and circled back around to the rest area right before the last set of torii gates before we realized we had even reached the top! I had heard the night before that the top was pretty anticlimactic, so I wasn’t surprised. We all laughed it off and agreed this is one of those times when the journey is way more meaningful than the destination — and it really was.

When we parted ways with our new friend, we headed to a local burger restaurant. Let me just say, the Japanese know how to make a burger! It was a version of a fat burger with egg yolk drizzling down the sides of the bun. It was so delicious and filling we literally had to head back to the hotel for a mini nap. I can’t figure out how everyone eats so much here — there’s no way I could keep up, and it’s not for lack of trying.

After our rest break, we made our way to the lobby for happy hour cocktails where we met more new friends — a couple from our very own Atlanta, GA! I swear Japan is so diverse, with tourists visiting from everywhere. We shared our vacation experiences and tips before heading off for dinner.

Tonight we finally found ramen we could eat. The problem is, 90% of ramen here contains pork, squid, eel, or something we couldn’t quite make out. We don’t eat pork, and we’ve tested our luck with mystery ingredients before — it didn’t always turn out well. We were happy with our chicken ramen.

Tomorrow is our train ride back to Tokyo for our final night of vacation. I can’t believe our trip is going to be over soon. Tonight it’s time for our massage chair while we do some laundry before going to bed.