We took the slow road instead of the expressway — stopping twice for coffee, once for a surprisingly good gas-station udon, and once to watch someone land a salmon the length of my arm.
Five days in Kyoto
We found a ryokan with parking (no small feat) and stayed put. Every morning we’d cycle rather than drive, because nothing in this city is further than twenty minutes by bike and nothing is faster than that by car.
Fushimi Inari at dawn
The only way to see the torii gates without crowds is to be there before the early tour buses. It was worth the 4:50am alarm by a significant margin.
North next
From here we fly — the truck goes back to Kyoto rental, and we’re headed for Hokkaido where it’s colder, quieter and still partially snowed in.