Fushimi Inari, Neko Café and Japanese grandmas

The post title already tells a lot about what happened on that day but if you want to know how beautiful Fushimi Inari Taisha really is, how it feels to visit a cat café and where we met a bunch of Japanese grandmas then you should continue reading!

 

Monday, november 16th 2015

When planning our trip we couldn’t wait to celebrate Angie’s 21st birthday in Japan. She would have rather celebrated in Tokyo, but due to our schedule we are supposed to be in Kyoto for the first five nights of our stay. We promised Angie to have an amazing birthday, spending it in a hostel while partying with dozens of young travellers from all over the world. But well, we learned that there aren’t too many party people in this hostel so we got a bit disappointed. If we only knew how amazing her birthday would turn out to be after all…

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Since the hair dryer in the hostel doesn’t work, we decide to dry our hair on the rooftop terrace. The sun is shining and we’re enjoying the view which allows us to see Kiyomizu Dera and Kodai-ji from here. The weather god seems to love us yet! We want to visit Fushimi Inari Taisha today and at night we want to celebrate Angie’s birthday. When we’re leaving the terrace, a guy around our age is asking us if we can suggest any sights in Kyoto. His name is Nick and he’s living in Australia, that’s all we know about him yet. After some small talk we are leaving for Kyoto station. We can’t wait to visit the shrine so we’re getting on the train while the sun keeps shining. Before walking over to the shrine area we’re buying some stuff in “our” konbini from spring. After smoking some cigarettes we’re heading to the shrine and god, it’s so beautiful here!

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When we finally arrive at the torii tunnels we’re freaking out completely. Although there are so many tourists around this place feels so magical and peaceful. The wood is breathtaking and I can’t find the right words to describe the beauty of the torii tunnels. We keep wandering around and we listen to the birds twittering. I could stay here forever. This time we want to walk up all the way of Mr.Inari but even if it’s november, we are sweating in our tank tops. Walking up the hill is quite exhausting but that’s probably because of our smoking behaviour and the fact that we’re completely unathletic. Before reaching the top we are taking a break to have some ice cream. The view from here is fantastic and it’s so warm! HA-HA, Austria, how’s the weather at home? Suddenly Nick is running past us and he stops by to talk to us. What a coincidence to meet him here! His friend Tom comes over and we’re talking to the guys. I ask them if they want to join us for Angie’s birthday party at night and they agree, so we arrange to meet at 08:00pm in the hostel.

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After eating our ice cream we are heading back down. Nick and Tom told us that the view from the top isn’t as good as from here so we decide not to walk all the way up. And we want to buy souvenirs so sadly there’s no time left for more sporty activities xD It seems to take us ages to walk back down the hill and we’re quite pissed off because of some tourists blocking the paths. I don’t want to insult any nationality but… sometimes you can tell where people come from only by studying their behaviour xD We are making it down eventually and we’re falling into a shopping rush when spotting all the amazing souvenirs. You could spend a lot of money here if you wouldn’t know that some stores in Tokyo’s Nakamise Dori are selling the same stuff 😉

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While heading back to the station we are walking past a Neko Café. Malie and me wanted to visit this café the last time already but I guess we didn’t have enough time. Angie loves cats more than anything else so we decide to enter the café. Like everywhere in Japan we have to get rid of our shoes in order to put our feet into some cozy slippers. A young Japanese lady is opening the door for us and she explains the “rules”. We can choose between two options and we pick the first one. 20 minutes with the cats, one treat for the animals and a drink for us. We pay around ¥1.000 per person but I’m not sure if it really was that much. The first eyecatcher definitely is the store manager. This cat is sitting there in such an awesome pose, we’re pretty amazed. After feeding the cats one of them is throwing up under Malie’s feet xD The 20 minutes are over quite fast but that’s okay, we only wanted to see a Neko café from the inside once in our lives. There will be an extra post about this kind of establishment later 🙂

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After leaving the café we are walking to the station. A bus full of old Japanese ladies is driving past us in walking speed. Angie is almost bursting into tears of joy. I forgot to mention that she’s got a predilection#

for Japanese grandmas. The ladies are knocking on the windows while waving and Angie can’t believe her eyes. This was definitely her highlight of the day and she’s still talking about it xD

 

So you want to know how and where we celebrated Angie’s birthday? Then you should stay tuned for my next post where I’m writing about our party night and the terrible day after 😛

 

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