Day 10 - Kyoto

Rise and Shrine, another lovely day. We really wished we'd brought shorts and sandals with us but didn't really expect the weather to be this good. 

Our first visit this morning was to Fushimi Inari Shinto Shrine which is famous for the thousands of Torii gates that make up the path to the top of the hill. The gates have all been donated by the wealthy and local businesses and have the donors name carved on one side of the pillar. 

Our second visit was the Buddhist Todaiji Temple which is famous for being the largest wooden structure in the world and houses the largest Buddha in the world. Both the building and the Buddha were pretty impressive. Buddhas hand is 3 metres by 3 metres so this gives an idea of its size. 

Everywhere we visit there are hundreds of school children and they are all incredibly well behaved. Each class also has a different coloured hat which means that children are easily identified. 

All the kids seemed more than happy to queue quietly queue up and crawl through a hole in one of the supporting timbers. The hole is the same size as the giant Buddhas nostril and it is believed that anybody who can squeeze through this opening will be granted enlightenment in the next life. 

Our third and final visit of the day is the Kasuga Trisha Shinto Shrine which is famous for its Japanese lanterns. There are over one thousand and some of these lanterns are hundreds of years old. It must look spectacular when they are all lit. 

On our way back our guide treated us to a mini Kit Kat each, strawberry flavoured chocolate. I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy one. 

We passed a Macdonalds today. At least if we'd wanted to order it would have been fairly easy and we'd have known what we were getting. I think most people have struggled with the food simply because it's difficult to know exactly what will turn up. 

Now we are back at our hotel enjoying a lovely cuppa. We almost feel at a loose end because this is the earliest we've been free all trip.