Kyoto: Fushimi Inari, pavilions, and much much more!

If yesterday was a “full day,” this was a VERY FULL DAY!

We started with a sunrise visit to Fushimi Inari for photos of these iconic gates without the overwhelming crowds. Beautiful and totally worth the early morning!

After returning to our hotel for breakfast, we continued exploring.

[A side note: the weather was quite warm and I didn’t realize we’d end up walking over 13 miles that day, so I wore my new Birkenstock sandals. NOT a good choice! I woke up the next morning with a bad back spasm…]

We started the day’s meandering with one of this trip’s highlights: Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) – a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I loved capturing this pavilion in the mid-morning light with stellar autumn colors!

From there, we went to the Zen rock garden, Ryōan-ji, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. For our third and final UNESCO World Heritage Site of the day, we wandered over to Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion).

We enjoyed our late lunch of convenience store sandwiches and chips, eaten on a stone bench watching water flow through the Lake Biwa Canal.

We continued walking along the canal on the Philosopher’s Path, named after Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945), one of Japan’s most influential modern philosophers. A quick photographic stop at Eikan-dō led us to our final highlight of the day, Nanzen-ji, with its Zen temple complex and brick aqueduct.