Kyoto

November 14, 2025 from the itinerary: Check out from Hidatei Hanaougi and take the ryokan's shuttle bus to the Takayama Station. Travel by train to Kyoto. Take a taxi to the Ryokan Hiiragiya.

Breakfast was lovely and similar to others.  Again, it feels like this hotel is having issues with help as the attention to detail (name spelling, etc) just wasn’t there.

The day started with a beautiful train ride along the Hida River on the way to Nagoya.  My first train was a limited express and was quite crowded. 

I had a seat mate who was a transpanted Brit living in Canada with his wife who was born in the US, Canadian citizen and also had UK citizenship.  Seems she stopped her US citizenship so she wouldn’t have to continue paying taxes.    Nagoya was where I changed trains to the bullet train to Kyoto.

On this bullet train I got a towel which I gave to the carer of a man who had an accident in the metro to help clean him up.

Once in Kyoto, instead of taking a taxi I took the metro to a stop near my hotel and walked the last 8 minutes to my Ryokan called Hiiragiya.  I had to take a photo of this gal on the metro. And her fingernails.

This ryokan has been in the same family for 11 generations and I met the owner who was a delightful lady.  The third photo is my welcome drink/sweet.

We had one hiccup over dinner.  I’m not sure I remember why we decided not to arrange dinner here as they are known for their food.  I asked if there were other places in Kyoto where I could arrange to try similar food for dinner but was told that this special cuisine needed 24 hour notice and it wouldn’t be possible.  They checked with their chef later in the day and they were able to accommodate me.  Not only that, they offered in room dining which I accepted because a) as a single person it’s a bit awkward in the dining areas, b) it probably was easier on their local patrons not to have a foreigner around and c) I was tired and just wanted to watch my shows in peace.  

I was held up for about 30 minutes being polite to the ryokan owner before I could leave to sightsee.  This turned out to be an interesting discussion. She told me some of the history of this ryokan. An Nobel Prize winning author always wanted to stay in room 16 to write (my room) because it was so quiet and the rain made such a nice noise and looked so nice in the garden.  The rain effect is why she always keeps the entry wet.  It is a nice effect (see above).

I had some time to kill and decided to go to the Fushimi-Inari - the Temple at the base of Mt. Inari.  this is where you can walk up Mt. Inari along paths lined with tori gates, 10,000 in all, I’m told.  I was finally able to start at about 3pm.  There were a lot of people,

but as I ascended the crowds decreased and I timed it just right to start down at sunset. 

Walking down as dark descended had a mystical effect. 

It was a bit off-putting to see warning signs about boars and monkeys, but I pushed that to the back of my mind and enjoyed the experience of walking through the tori gates, almost by myself, in the increasing darkness.

There aren’t too many photos as my phone battery was almost gone and I got back with 1% battery only because I was able to remember the return trip.

I had enough battery to take two shots on the way home

Here is my room.

Now it was time for an absolutely wonderful dinner.  I even liked the soft-shell turtle in the egg custard.  Oishi! (Oishi means delicious)

I was on a futon again tonight and had the window open because I find many of the Japanese places are overheated.  The open window may have been a mistake as some of the smells were not very nice and smelled like either the farmers were fertilizing or there were issues with the plumbing.