Went to Kyoto on a whim! (Patreon)

I was originally planning to just stick around Tokyo, but I decided to buy a JR rail pass last minute and go to Kyoto. I have a Japanese friend, Ken san, who lives in Kyuushuu, but offered to come up to Kyoto to show me around!

I'll just start off by saying, this was probably the most fun day of my life. Kyoto was beautiful, but being able to experience it with a friend is the most incredible experience.

Ken san collects film cameras, and he surprised me with one of his Nikon EM's as a gift!!! I almost cried. He gave me some film and we got to spend the day shooting. He chose the PERFECT camera for me. It's so simple to use and it's really light, It's mostly plastic contruction.

We started the day at Fushimi Inari shrine. You can actually hike all the way to the top of Mt Inari but it takes the entire day, so we decided to just go up till we got a good view of Kyoto. Fushimi Inari is full of Kitsune!! I mean there are literally hundreds of kitsune statues all over the place. They're all incredibly unique.

There were a lot of cats at one of the shrines along the fushimi inari path!! Ken san was saying they care for them around the shrine. They were semi friendly.

It's momiji season rn, basically when the leaves change during autmumn. I literally came at the PERFECT time to see the momiji. The weather was perfect too! Not too blindingly bright, but not rainy either

Afterwards we went to Kyomizu. The size of it is just breathtaking, somehow you can tell how heavy it is. We had some kitsune soba too. Kitsune are popular in Kyoto!!!

After kyomizu we went to nanzen ji for the sunset. Then for a walk along kamogawa, and finally some ramen for dinner.

And now! I have a JR rail pass!!! I think this coming week I'll be going to Gifu. Kyoto was such a nice break from Tokyo and I want to go even further into the woods!