kyoto: day FOUR

Can you believe it is January and I still have two more blog posts to write about our Kyoto trip back in November! Getting right to it...

Day four started out with a train ride to the Fushimi Inari Shrine which is famous for its long paths lined with hundreds of orange gates. It was crowded and a little frustrating to maneuver with a stroller so we didn't linger. 

 

 

 

 

  

We had lunch (tonkatsu! my favorite!) at the train station en route to Nara, which was the capital of Japan before Kyoto (which was the capital before Tokyo). We really enjoyed our time in Nara. There were large parks and beautiful gardens and about 75% less people than there would have been in Kyoto. We had one small, but beautiful, garden all to ourselves and it was striking what a different experience it was - so serene and and you were actually able to pause and appreciate the little moments. Wiley particularly enjoyed Nara's city mascot - a giant baby with deer antlers. And Blue enjoyed the space to run and jump and he was quite taken with the actual deer. 

 

 

 

 

 

We were just in time to catch the sunset from Nara's tallest viewpoint. It was a pretty one too.