Back to Kyoto

Apparently Otsu has other cool things going for it, like a big lake (Lake Biwa), but I didn’t see any of that because I was trying to get back to Fushimi Inari before 6:00 pm. So after the croquettes, I took the JR Kozan Line back to Kyoto, which was a fairly quick (11 minutes), and free (with my JR Pass) ride, and then took the JR Nara Line (also free) to Inari Station.

Inari Station was nicely themed after the Fushimi Inari temple itself, with beams styled to look like red torii gates holding the station up.

The temple itself was a couple minutes away, and looked pretty much like the station had suggested.

Nightfall had arrived by this time though, and although the ritual/event, the Mikagura, took place in front of the main altar of Fushimi Inari, the area was completely dark.

In addition, no photos were allowed of the event itself, though plenty of idiot tourists tried. There was a raised stage with no shoes allowed and little cushion seats on it for the audience, but that was completely full and then some, so I stood at the side with others to watch/listen to the performance. A line of priests shuffled by us through a side gate into the main area, someone lit a small fire, and they proceeded to play instruments, wave a branch around occasionally, do a bunch of chanting/singing, and occasionally place other things next to the fire. It was hard to see any detail and somewhat ho-hum, but they’re not doing this to be a spectacle or public attraction after all, since it’s a ritual first and foremost.

I stayed there for about 40 minutes or so before leaving. I needed to find dinner, as Akira had scheduled to pick me up from the vicinity of Kyoto Station at around 8:00 pm. I returned to Inara Station and took a train back to Kyoto Station, found a station stamp there, then wandered south in search of a shop to eat at.

The moon was a weird reddish tint and many people, even locals, stopped to snap pictures of it. Mine wasn’t so good due to camera glare causing other artifacts on screen, but I was more interested in taking pictures of other people taking their pictures for my collection anyway.

I eventually ended up at an izakaya named Kyo Akari for dinner. That was one of my rougher experiences, as not only was I in a hurry, but for some reason even though they had an English menu, I couldn’t really connect very well in Japanese or English with the staff, who seemed busy and a bit dismissive. They were probably just busy, and didn’t take really kindly to someone who was just there for a meal with no extras or something. After standing around at the entrance for a bit, unsure if I should make my way in or leave as I was given no instruction, a nice staff member showed me to a table anyway, cleared away the previous guests’ bowls from it, and took my order. There was a comment on the menu on how there was a 385 yen surcharge or something applied to all seatings and which covered things like a side dish, but that never came, they only delivered my rice bowl and that’s it, and I was never charged that extra fee anyway, which suited me since I was in a hurry (but I didn’t tell them this). I had a quick bowl of tendon, or tempura rice bowl, for 858 yen:

Then hurried off to meet Akira to be driven back home, where I took a shower, and then spent the night working on work tickets while he wandered in and out of my room to heat up my bed with a hot air heated blanket device that he put under my blanket. Our workload from work had exploded, with lots of tickets to do, which would have been nice if I were actually at home to work on them, but working on tickets while abroad and while a couple days behind on my blogging was a pain, partially because I could never attend the daily work standup which was scheduled for 3:00 am Japan Standard Time.