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Living like a local is a dream that comes up when visiting a place you fall in love with. Most of the time it’s just synonymous with other metaphors like “I wish I had time to stop and smell the roses.” Maybe it’s a less direct way of saying “I wish the person planning our trip hadn’t crammed so much into our daily itinerary.” This seems like an opportune time to apologize if you’ve traveled with me and felt that way! Living like a local hardly ever means that we’d like the place we’re traveling to fit into our everyday lives, usually we want to fit our everyday lives into that place for a little while. On our third day in Kyoto everything collided to make me feel both of those things.

Throughout Autumn, like so many Americans, my life revolved around my favorite football team. It just so happened that my favorite football team, the Washington Huskies, had their best season since I was a handsome, well read one year old. I’m 33 now. Even while living in California, I attended all but one of their home games and several away games. I’m sure many of you reading this could care less about college football so I’ll summarize the season by saying I had a blast. To those that follow sports and are nodding along with this paragraph, I’ll say that experiencing this season with my family meant everything.

But how does this fit in with Kyoto? On our final full day in the city, my team was in the conference championship game and I had to decide if I should go about my day and follow along on my phone or take up around 4 hours to watch the game. I chose the game. The rest of the group went off on their own adventures (Shelby & Ben to Nara and Melissa went to do some shopping and find some wonderful train station waffles) while I hunkered down in our Kyoto Airbnb. Washington beat their hated rival and won the conference championship and I probably concerned all of our neighbors with some of my excitement.

Melissa kindly brought me some lunch and shortly after we finished celebrating, we took a train to Fushimi Inari to meet our friends. If you weren’t following along five years ago (how dare you!), Fushimi Inari is one of my favorite places in the world. For those unfamiliar, thousands of torii gates (nearly 10,000) line Mt. Inari and the pathway to the top. There are several loops and side trails, shrines and city views, spirituality and people watching to absorb at Fushimi Inari.

We arrived a little bit before our friends so we walked along the river that’s down below the mountain shrine ahead of time. It was a very crowded day at the entrance to Fushimi Inari but this area was really peaceful and beautiful. I always think it’s funny that there are usually peaceful spots just a few steps away from something extremely popular. The same goes for theme parks!

We grabbed a drink from the trusty 7-11, met up with our friends and headed up the mountain. The first loop and shrine were very busy, to the point where it was kind of a stop and go pace. That eventually leveled off and that’s when Fushimi Inari is the best. The first loop is cool and I like that it’s easily attainable if you only have half an hour or want to stop by late one night. But once you get past the crowds and start hiking is when the area becomes magical.

We timed the hike well, going up before sunset and hitting some of the lookouts at a wonderful time before summiting and descending in the dark. Golden hour and blue hour were beautiful times to hike up the mountain. There’s a certain mystique that comes to Fushimi Inari in the dark. It’s almost a bit spooky. Here’s a few more photos from the hike.

The hike up is moderate but does get pretty steep right before the summit. I’d encourage anyone to do the full hike, just take it slow if you are worried about it. The summit has a fairly large shrine but I wouldn’t say it’s wowing. More so, there’s a satisfaction that comes with reaching the top and I find it enchanting that there are torii gates all the way up there.

I found the whole evening euphoric. Between the exercising and being in one of my favorite spots, along with the previous days and my favorite team winning earlier in the day – life felt pretty perfect in that moment.

It occurred to me that contentment was the feeling Melissa and I were chasing when we had planned to stay in the country for an extended time in 2020. We wanted to have our everyday lives intertwined with going to these historic landmarks on a whim. Getting to experience that feeling in the few short days we were in Kyoto was a blessing. It didn’t make up for not getting to take that dream trip but there was some redemption and a day I’ll never forget.

We hiked down the mountain and got dinner at Ramen Hiwamatanoboru. This is my favorite bowl of ramen I’ve had in Japan, with a very rich and filling broth. It’s the only restaurant we’ve repeated in the two trips to Kyoto. Whenever there’s a third I think we’ll have a hard time passing up another trip!

After a train ride back to near our Airbnb, we walked around Gion for a while unsuccessfully looking for a bar that we had spotted the night before. Instead we got treats at a convenience store and enjoyed watching a movie once back at the house. It was a perfect day.

The next day we were set to leave Kyoto later in the morning so Melissa and I got up early to visit one more temple – Nanzen-Ji. Residing in the eastern side of the city and right next to Eikan-do, Nanzen-Ji was originally built as a retirement villa before burning down and being rebuilt somewhere around the 1400’s. The accompanying aqueduct began construction in the late 1800’s.

The temple had more of that villa or school vibe than others we’ve visited. They even had a video showing in one room that explained the temple’s history and place in Kyoto. All of the rooms had views of the gardens outside and, like most of the Kyoto temples, everything was concisely constructed.

The real winner of Nanzen-Ji were the outside portions, whether they are the gardens inside the buildings that have an entry fee or just wandering the areas outside of that building. In the first few days of December, the colors were vibrant.

Nanzen-Ji’s aqueduct is wonderful and fun to get up and walk along. The path actually makes some sense to use if you’re headed towards a train station. Overall, this is one of the best temples in Kyoto and worth exploring whether you pay the entry fee or not.

The rest of the day was spent (sadly) leaving Kyoto and heading to Fuji. That was a surprisingly difficult endeavor that included a train ride, a highway bus, a city bus and then a 20 minute walk along a dark road that was a safe area but not a good spot to walk because the road was somewhat busy and narrow.

Even with the difficult transport, seeing a few new-to-me areas of the country was fun. We booked a 2 night stay at the Fuji Marriott by Lake Yamanaka. It was a nice place to stay but I do wish they had a few more views of the mountain and other amenities. (I’m going to keep posting photos of Nanzen-Ji because I didn’t take many other photos this day.)

We had dinner at the hotel buffet that night and thought it was pretty good but not overly special, especially for the price. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it but they did have items that were unique to the country and specific region. We took the evening pretty easy after a long travel day.

That night I tried my first onsen, which was included with the hotel. An onsen is a hot springs public bath. I wasn’t especially keen on bathing naked with strangers but when I arrived I was impressed by the facility and the pool was quite large. On top of that, I was the only one in there! It was relaxing and something I could grow more accustomed to for sure. Eventually another person came into the pool and he was clearly an experienced onsen user. Overall, I enjoyed the experience but probably won’t be rushing back to do another one.

After a restful night, we decided to spend the next day as our most relaxing of the trip. Don’t get me wrong, we still got in our 20,000+ steps but there was no agenda as we started on one end of Lake Yamanaka and walked around the majority of it. The air was brisk and at times downright chilly but we had hats, scarves and sweaters so we didn’t mind the weather. Hat tip to anyone who got that reference.

The mountain was out for the majority of the day, infrequently blocked by clouds. We stopped at a few restaurants throughout the morning and afternoon including one that I can only describe as the Japanese equivalent to Denny’s. That’s not a perfect comparison because we did pass an actual Denny’s to get there but the food and menu was similar. The most unique part of this spot was the self-service drink bar where you could get unlimited coffee, tea, hot cocoa, soft drinks, juice and I’m probably forgetting something. There was also a cat robot that delivered our food and I’m now realizing that I should not have pronounced the self-service drink bar as the most unique part but I’m not going to delete it!

We also stopped for some cinnamon coffee at a little shop a little farther down. Note that this was not a part of the self-service drink bar nor delivered by a cat robot. But the shop did have some absolutely terrible pop and Christmas music playing. I didn’t like the coffee much either but we had a good laugh. Later in the day we had a much more normal meal that included fluffy pancakes, great drinks and a really cute café. I’d go back there as there was no threat of AI gone wrong or pop music gone even more wrong.

For the first half of the day, the story was how many swans and koi were in the lake. It was honestly pretty gross but hard to stop looking at. Like a really slimy car crash followed by staring into a void. The void is the koi’s soulless eyes, for anyone who couldn’t follow that pitiful metaphor.

Swans are certainly prettier but are now my least favorite animal after we boarded a swan boat and paddled around the lake for half an hour. The experience was full of non-stop laughs that hid our fear as hoards of swans swam up on us. It was like Jaws, but there were 25 sharks. Except the sharks had not teeth and were actually fairly large birds who just floated on the water so it wasn’t dangerous at all, it was just annoying. The swans were nothing like sharks but I do like sharks more.

Jokes and incoherent paragraphs aside, we had a blast out on the water. I’d say I had a scar from a swan chomping on my leg 3 different times but, again, there’s no teeth so it didn’t hurt me at all. Unfortunately, the mountain was covered up while we were out on the water but we were pretty distracted anyway.

Our afternoon was spent at the aforementioned café and continuing our lake loop. Yamanaka was an interesting place to explore. Walking around the lake was one of my favorite memories of the trip as the weather cooperated, the mood was exceptional and the Fuji views were glorious. That said, I don’t know if the area offered me any reason to go back. I think I’d rather explore other places to view the mountain’s splendor from. That’s not to knock this lake’s view, it was beautiful! See for yourself.

I’m guessing Yamanaka thrives in the summer as people get out on the lake. During the winter, it felt like a bit of a ghost town. We didn’t see many people throughout the day and this wonderful path we walked on hardly had any other visitors, more just a few locals out for a run here and there.

We ended up at a perfect spot for sunset and took it in. The moment stretched on and there wasn’t a single part of me that felt in a hurry. Between the contemplative temples and shrines of Kyoto, memorials in Hiroshima, wonder of Miyajima and the triumph of Fuji, it felt easier to find perspective after it all hit an apex while staring at that mountain at sunset. Our problems seem much smaller when those moments happen and that’s a large reason why travel is so pivotal to me. Here’s a few more photos!

We walked back to the hotel at dusk, stopping for a convenience store dinner on the way. After splurging at the buffet the previous night, grabbing a meal for the four of us for about $20 total seemed like the way to go. We were all pretty wiped out after walking a lot but we share so many great memories from the day.

The next morning we were up early to check out and head toward Chureito Pagoda, which offers one of the most pictured views of Mt. Fuji. Like the previous travel day, it wasn’t super easy to get there. I definitely got yelled at by a bus driver for not having a ticket even though there was no ticket to get? Either way, we eventually made it off the darn bus and hiked up to see the view of the pagoda with Fuji in the background.

The pictures and view from the top were very pretty, as advertised. The rest of the experience was lackluster. I wouldn’t recommend going to the pagoda unless you’re already in the area and it’s surprisingly difficult to be in that area! The pagoda dwarfed in size relative to those we’d seen elsewhere and while it looked cool with Fuji also in frame, we had better views the previous day. Don’t fact check me on this one but I think this was the only destination we visited on the trip that actually disappointed. That said, I’m glad we went for a look because of how many times I’ve seen the above photo. Getting to see it with my own eyes was worth it.

We walked back down, grabbed some lunch at a train station where we’d stored our bags (do not try to hike up to Chureito Pagoda with suitcases in tow!) and then took a series of trains to Tokyo Disney Resort. If you’re interested in going to Fuji, getting there from Tokyo is so much easier than from the west side of Fuji.

The train rides preceded a ride on the Tokyo Disney Monorail and we were set for the next leg of our adventure!

That part of the adventure is where we’ll pick up next time, starting our Tokyo Disney Resort Trip Report!While this post didn’t have to do with Tokyo Disney Resort, we’ll get there soon and if you’re planning a trip there then check out our guide! If you enjoy what you’re reading please subscribe to the blog and like our social media pages which you can find on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!