Grey and rainy when we headed out today, we decided to take the umbrellas provided in our apartment, despite the fact that we are both quite bad at keeping track of our belongings. 

     

 

 
 I have been looking forward to visiting the Fushimi Inari Shrine, the famous vermillion gates were the reason I wanted to visit Kyoto on this trip. And it didn’t disappoint.

  
  Heard on the steps of the shrine Wife: We need to get a map Husband: You don’t need to get fixated on the map yet. I bet that tells the story of their trip!

 

 There are thousands of gates, they actually frame the path all the way to the top of Mt Inari
Despite the huge numbers of people it was quite soothing and meditative walking through the tunnel of gates. 

 

 
  

  
I took my photos on the way in and enjoyed the walk back in silence. Many people talked constantly the whole time, more involved in their chat and in each other than their surroundings. I suppose they will go back to wherever they are staying and tick that off their list. 

  

Next stop, a cat cafe! We really wished Jess was with us. I can’t say the cats were dying to be patted, so catlike! 

 
In fact one of them bit me and then spent the rest of the time giving me the evil eye from its cube. 

  

I think they would much rather sit in the window and watch the world go by than interact with humans.   

Back in Kyoto we decided we were going to cook dinner that night, the steak and mushrooms we had seen the day before. Hmmm, now where was that butcher? I know it’s just  down from the crab restaurant, somewhere along here down this alley, or maybe this alley…..nope, gone never to be seen by us again!

Not having any steak we decided against the mushrooms and headed back to the apartment. Now if we just go down this alleyway and turn left we should be on the main road home……nope, not there, Google Maps had us going around in circles, until I finally found a landmark I knew, not that it was anywhere near where I thought we were! 

 

 
But as luck would have it we ended up outside the  Minamiza Theatre which we had tried unsuccessfully to find previously, and were able to get tickets for the Kabuki performance “one Stirmy just about to start – 3 and a half hrs, apparently short by Kabuki standards. There were a few intervals, including one quite long one where everyone, except us, took out out their bento boxes and had a meal. We shared a packet of rice crackers. 

Kabuki theatre had its origins in the 1600s, was originally performed by women prostitutes but the males in the audience got too excited so it is now performed by an all male cast

  
Kabuki performances are full of drama and emotion, very dramatic music, flamboyant costuming and over the top acting. The cast runs through the audience and target audience members with obviously bawdy remarks. One section in the middle was rather tedious where a beautiful young woman was baring her inner-most soul in a most dramatic way to her bff, obviously it was very heartbreaking but also very long and we had no idea what that was about. But other than that we could sort of follow the storyline, star-crossed lovers who meet one stormy night in a darkened hut ,went through lots of dramas, lots of characters got killed but eventually all was well in the end.  

We found out afterwards the main characters were  a wolf and a goat and much of the humour at one stage was about the wolf being conflicted about whether to love or eat his new found friend. 
Click to find out about Kabuki Theatre 

On our way home we stopped at a supermarket to buy steak and shiitake mushrooms and other veges for our dinner. Japanese cuisine, the type that we have tried anyway, is not big on vegetables 

  
It was delicious but the star of the show was definitely the mushrooms, we could have just had a plate of them. 

  
Another great day in Kyoto – tomorrow off to Tokyo and the Apple Store!