We get out of the hotel a bit before the 11am deadline, and walk in 40 degrees real feel heat to the Kyoto station. Most stuff is put in a coin locker, and off we go, towards lake Biwa, and more precisely, Omi-Takashima station. We haven’t seen a Tori, unwrapped, in water, and we haven’t walked much in the countryside, this is the experience we are looking for. At the Shirahige shrine, there is such a Torri, even if we are forwarned: access is not easy due to traffic on the road. After a nice ride, with views on rice fields, then on the lake, we arrive at Omi-Takashima station. We are greeted outside the station by a statue of Gulliver and Lillipuths. We have to do some searching to learn that there is, not far from here, a Gulliver-themed attraction park for kids. In the station we got a plan of the area, with a clear indication of the way to the shrine, so off we go. We walk in between rice fields, reach a pond with a typical, angled, pedestrian bridge, then advance further in the fields before reaching the edge of town. Birds of prey, black kites according to our expert, are flying above our heads, and, from the sound of them, there are juveniles in the pack.
We walk on a narrow sidewalk that goes along what could almost be described as a highway, until a stone signals us to take a pedestrian path going up the hills. We reach a cemetery with an army of 48 Buddhas, take a rest, then follow the path down. Back to the highway it is. After some minutes we see the torii. It is nice, the lake is nice, but the traffic on the highway is disturbing. 3 minutes later, we reach the shrine. Incredibly, the highway cuts the shrine from the torii. Thankfully, Rotary or some similar organism built a platform that allows one to admire the torii from above the road. Still, it seems incredible that man would have ruined in such a way the beauty of the place. It would be relatively easy, it seems to us, to install some lights allowing people to cross the road and admire the torii from closer. As is, only courageous cyclists who ride along the roaring cars can stop and have the top view. (Then again, there are so many shrines in Japan, maybe this is deliberate).
We walk back, taking a detour to visit the campground and see if there would be a quick way to reach the torii by the beach, but not luck: this is for campers and day campers. We walk back to the rice fields and see something brown moving not so far in front. Another boar? A Japanese raccoon? No, it’s a monkey! Another one passes in front of us, and both go in hiding, seemingly under a house on the right of the road. We look around and spot what looks like a more imposing and older monkey surveilling us… and a little kid monkey courageously comes to take a glimpse of us! We continue, herons are watching us, wary that we might jump in the wet fields. Back at the station we buy some onigiri, sandwiches, Macha ice creams and wait for the train.
Back in Kyoto, we buy some bento boxes, make seat reservations, board the train, and soon enough we are back in Tokyo station. We arrive just in time to go admire floating lanterns in the moats of the imperial palace, an event that is being revived after two covid cancellation. There are many people, we have to slalom a bit with our suitcase, but it is worth the while. We then walk to Iidabachi station, take the Chuo line back to Shinjuku, move on to the Yamamote line for a stop and are back in Okubo.
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