Last Trip to Kyoto
I spent my last weekend in Japan in Kyoto because I guess it just doesn't seem right if I don't go there once a season. Tammy's sister is visiting, and they wanted to show her Kyoto, so I tagged along.
We visited the Fushimi Inari shrine. Inari is the Shinto fox god of the harvest, particularly rice. Not surprisingly, it's very popular in the countryside.
The Fushimi Inari shrine is famous for having thousands of Tori gates. They also seem to have lots of mosquitos. Here's TamDrew and Tammy's sister among some toris.
Temple cat sleeping on a bunch of little toris. Cute!
It was the end of the Gion festival, so we went out to watch lots of drunk men, many of them not wearing pants, carrying around the small "mikoshi". Each one represents a certain district of the area.
Now some pictures from the covered food market street, Nishiki.
Care for an octopus lollipop?
Making some traditional sweets.
The finished product looks like this.
And lastly, let's play guess the pickle. Personally, I think Japanese pickles are absolutely vile. They're intensely salty, but beyond that, the flavor is just indescribable. Anyway, try to guess what these pickles are made of.
Pickle 1
Pickle 2.
Highlight below for answers.
Pickle 1= Mini watermelons.
Pickle 2= Cucumbers. Yes, those disgusting pink shriveled things were once cucumbers.
We visited the Fushimi Inari shrine. Inari is the Shinto fox god of the harvest, particularly rice. Not surprisingly, it's very popular in the countryside.
The Fushimi Inari shrine is famous for having thousands of Tori gates. They also seem to have lots of mosquitos. Here's TamDrew and Tammy's sister among some toris.
Temple cat sleeping on a bunch of little toris. Cute!
It was the end of the Gion festival, so we went out to watch lots of drunk men, many of them not wearing pants, carrying around the small "mikoshi". Each one represents a certain district of the area.
Now some pictures from the covered food market street, Nishiki.
Care for an octopus lollipop?
Making some traditional sweets.
The finished product looks like this.
And lastly, let's play guess the pickle. Personally, I think Japanese pickles are absolutely vile. They're intensely salty, but beyond that, the flavor is just indescribable. Anyway, try to guess what these pickles are made of.
Pickle 1
Pickle 2.
Highlight below for answers.
Pickle 1= Mini watermelons.
Pickle 2= Cucumbers. Yes, those disgusting pink shriveled things were once cucumbers.