Kyoto 1

To celebrate our 5 years of love and marriage we decided to visit Kyoto a few weeks ago. We rode through the night on an expressbus filled
with curtains like a cramped hospital ward. We woke up in Kyoto bleary eyed and sleep deprived but energised by the early rising sun, and set
off straight for Fushimi-Inari-taisha. By 7am the sun was alright high and bright and shining between tree branches and shrine roofs and torii gates.
We traversed an endless tunnel of repetitive lines and shapes as sunlight flashed through the cracks. Delicate and varying shades of reds, roses, pinks,
and oranges passed by on both sides.









We found a small path off to the side and wandered away from the main spectacle to explore a new scene, and found ourselves on a mountain trail,
first leading through a cedar forest, then slowly morphing into a bamboo world. The sunlight reflected off the bamboo in an eerie green glow, and each stalk
in the forest was its own hue. We basked in the green monochrome world a little while and moved on down the path to find a small shrine next to a waterfall
with countless tiny fox statues and torii gates.







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I'll remember the beautiful, colourful, peaceful, inspiring things I saw that morning forever. The kanji carved into the wood posts, the mini carpets of moss growing at the base of everything, the beautiful all-female ritual we witnessed at the tiny hidden shrine where they all wore white and sang and chanted together around the waterfall, the intricately woven spiderwebs catching sunbeams and dewdrops and perfectly framing mini shrines and historic archways, and the beautiful soft greens of the bamboo forest. <3<3<3


Love,
From Kyoto,
Kathryn <3