Day trip to 伏見 Fushimi

We went to check out the many Torii gates at 伏見稲荷大社 Fushimi Inari in the morning, and we discovered that there were now many more Torii gates compared to our previous visit in 2011, making it an even prettier sight. As we were entering the shrine close to 9am, we saw a few visitors leaving 😮 There were easily at least another 20 visitors making their way up at the same time as us, but most of them were quite quiet and orderly in their movements, so it was a rather pleasant walk. Despite the cold, we soon got warm as we slowly made our way up to the view point. Our journey to and fro the view point was about an hour. We were glad we came early; by the time we made our descent, it became really crowded!

We went to a popular unagi restuarant, 祢ざめ家 Nezameya, for breakfast, and the grilling of the unagi just outside the restaurant was certainly very enticing! When we requested for a table of 3, we were told in a rather fierce tone that each person must order at least one item. Ok, we got it, but there was really no need to be so unfriendly about it 😦

We ordered a うなどんセット Unagi Set (¥2000), うなぎかば燒 Grilled Unagi (¥1650), and Quail (¥720) to share. It would be best to get at least a set with rice, otherwise, the food might be too salty. The smoky flavour from the grill and the sweetness of the unagi was a delicious combination, but the quail was just alright. Portions were quite small, but we had read that it was now really expensive to eat unagi due to difficulties in rearing the fish. Tea was served but the service was not very good; sometimes we only got our cups refilled by half… Sheesh!

We did not linger for long, and made our way back to Kyoto after our less than satisfying breakfast.