................Taking Flight...............: Day 1: Inari Shrine, Nishiki Market and part of Gion (in the rain)

We headed out with the Inari Shrine on our checklist. We took the JR line (not really subway, more like a train route) out to the area. The subway/train lines are a bit confusing. It's possible because our station is the main hub and lots of lines (subway and train) come in there; there were over 33 tracks!

Anyway, after exiting the station, the entrance to the shrine is on the other side of the street. It was really cool to see all of the red gates leading up the mountain over the path. The gates are for good fortune. People or businesses can buy one, but it is very coveted and expensive! It was a bit of a hike and we didn't go all the way to the top. The other cool thing is the symbol of the fox is important at the shrine, so there were lots of cute little fox statues around.

We wandered around the area outside the shrine a bit before taking the train back to Kyoto Station. We found a food court type of place in the station basement and went to a kind of cafe for lunch. We took a short break and figured out what to do for the evening at the guesthouse. Then we set off, walking to Nishiki Market. The market was pretty neat. There were lots of tiny shop stalls crammed together selling food (fresh/raw) and other goods. After walking through the market, we went on to Gion, a district famous for Geisha sightings because it's the "old" part of the city. It started drizzling and then raining a little bit harder. We didn't have umbrellas so it was hard to enjoy some of the area. Luckily a lot of the shops on the main road leading to Gion had a big overhang and we could walk under those. We weren't actually too impressed with Gion from the first look.

We walked back towards our guesthouse, looking for a Japanese restaurant to have dinner at. We picked one that had meat and rice bowls. It was pretty good. After dinner, the rain had mostly turned to drizzle and it wasn't a bad walk home.