Rain, rain, rain

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari Shrine - warding off the spirits

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari Shrine - quick grab a photo in this gap of tourists

Cherry blossoms petals floating down the rain

Eating pasta with chopsticks, made it through the whole meal

Sannenzaka Slope in Gion

Gion

In oldest zen temple, this roof painting
 was done in 2002 to commemorate
the 800th anniversary of the temple, it is truly amazing
and the dragons seem to leap off the roof
The artist is Koizumi Junsaku

A lovely dinner with Gail (an Aussie on the tour),
followed by an excursion to 7-11
for money and milk and the shop assistant thought
we were Italian, no Aussies, ahh, kangaroos. 

I wake to the sound of rain, the weather app says rain all day and a top of 12 degrees. Hmm. Well, a tourist must do what a tourist must do. Dress appropriately and make the best of it.

We travelled today to:

Fushimi Inari Shrine - its the one with the red tori gates that you see in all the photos of Kyoto, built in 794 there are fox statues everywhere to deliver messages from the gods. 

Yasui Konpiragu Shrine - a cute little extra shrine where you climb through a tunnel and cut ties with bad relationships

Higashiyama and Gion districts - with little streets and old world atmosphere where the geiko live, train and work, there are about 300 left in Kyoto  

Its now 3pm, we are delirious with exhaustion and can’t take another step, where is Ken our guide going now, I thought we where done about an hour ago. It's all amazing, even in the pouring rain however this is starting to feel like a death march. That sentiment this morning about making the best of it has certainly worn off. 

We are now going to Kennin-ji, the oldest zen temple in Kyoto. Shoes off. Better hold onto something otherwise I will fall over and not get up. Gee, the floor is cold, we idle through, can we go yet? Then we arrive at the dry landscape garden and my equilibrium is restored. Ken has saved the best for last this is beautiful. So tranquil and with the rain it looks perfect. Now time to go on and explore the rest of this temple.