For the first time this week the weather was cloudy and it looked like rain. We left our hotel at 8 and spent a couple of hours driving to Koka Ninja Village. It was a mini “theme park” that was located in a town that used to be inhabited by Ninjas. They had a house that used to be resided in by ninja, equipped with many ingenious traps and devices, designed to prevent intruders and to provide a means of escape in times of need. The park had a number of activities aimed at training visitors in becoming ninjas. We even got a chance at throwing “Shurikens” at a target.

After lunch we visited the “Sagawa Art Museum” which is a Modern Art Museum located in Kyoto. While an interesting building, with lots of paintings and brass sculptures, it seemed like a weird addition to the tour. We spent about an hour walking through the various exhibits – which included too many hand made tea cups by a specific artist to hold my interest. Moreover the brass statues spanned a period of 35 years for a particular artist – and I struggled to appreciate the beauty in it.

Our final stop, on a day mostly spent driving, was at the Fushimi Inari Shrine, best known for a 4 km tunnel of Torii Gates. We only had an hour to explore the entire district which was an incredibly short time. Moreover, with a bit of rain, the humidity increased and made it quite uncomfortable. We did, however, walk most of the way up the hill through the, almost 2,500, Torii gates. Each gate is “donated” by supporters and the size denotes the value of the donation. The temple, in itself, while large wasn’t as expansive as the one we saw in Tokyo a couple of days ago. Moreover, this seemed to be more of a “touristy” stop with fewer locals offering prayers.

We had a coffee free start to the day, mainly because the hotel we stayed in last night had a traditional Japanese breakfast with minimal coffee options. So when we had a break at a truck stop mid morning, we took the opportunity to grab some coffee and breakfast pastries. For lunch, we stopped at another truck stop with a food court. We both got ramen and had to order via a vending machine – which then dispensed a ticket and token for us to collect our meals. By the time dinner came around we were keen to just find a restaurant close to the hotel. We visited a place called “Royal Host” which was literally across the road from the hotel. It promotes itself as an “international restaurant” and had British pub meals, American burgers, steaks and sandwiches on the menu. We indulged and even got some dessert.