Sunday 29 March 2015

Nishiki Market, meeting more friends, Sake brewery and Fushimi-Inari-Taisha

We were going to visit Fushimi-Inari-Taisha this morning but it was raining so instead we visited the fascinating Nishiki market, which is not far from our hotel.  It's a real foodies place with lots of local produce and local cooking going on for all to see.  The sights and smells were amazing!

We got a train down to Momoyama where we met an old friend from Oxford and his family for lunch.  They took us to see a Sake brewery and museum in the area, the Gekkeikan Sake Okura museum, where we learned all about the process of making this typical rice-based Japanse spirit.

After a coffee with Simon and family we parted and got the train to Inari from where we visited the important Fushimi-Inari-Taisha, the head shrine for some 40,000 Inari shrines across Japan.  It has about 4km of walkways across the side of a thickly wooded mountain.  We didn't make it all the way to the top as it was getting dark.

After this temple we found a rather upmarket Izakaya bar in the Gion area, called Bamboo, where we greatly enjoyed a tasting-type menu with seven small courses.

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