Adventure in Kyoto: Monday (Part 4 of 4)

Link to Part 3

After checking out of the rented house, we put our luggage in a locker at the train station (even the lockers are pretty!) and hit up the last few places on our list before heading back to Tokyo.

The Jishu Shrine.









Possibly the most awesome cleansing station I've seen yet.



We are all held up by wooden scaffolding.

This place is pretty busy in the middle of the day.

Part of this complex is a little area devoted to the Japanese version of Cupid, Okuninushi no Mikoto. He is the god of love and relationships, his messenger is a rabbit.

I thought this was kind of a nice cathartic thing to offer. Write your troubles on a piece of paper and put that paper in the bucket of water. When the paper dissolves, your trouble will clear up.

Lots and lots of rabbit motifs and love/lucky-in-love tokens.


And here's the guy himself! With his freakishly tall rabbit friend.

Heading to the train station. Cafe Kash - with MAYOR. It's just not the same without the Mayor.

We were able to sit together on the shinkansen this time, and here's a little video to demonstrate how very, very fast it is. The ride was about three hours, with one brief stop. The shinkansen travels at speeds up to 300 km/hr, or almost 200 mph. It's really, really swift. And comfy! We each had a fold-down tray and more legroom than we knew what to do with (if I'd stretched out my legs, I don't think I would have kicked the chair in front of me). We bought lunch at the station to eat on the way, but if we hadn't, we could have gotten something from the snack bar.

The cost of the shinkansen ticket is more than regular train (but a 3-hour trip instead of an 8-hour trip) but less than flying, if I remember correctly. If only flying were that comfortable.