*Fujifilm X100VI 23mm f/2: 1/1000s, f/2.8, ISO800*

To keep it 💯 , I was a little disappointed to not see Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kinkakuji, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, or some Geisha adjacent experiences in the Kyoto part of the tour, but I know they’re often VERY crowded and probably difficult for large groups to visit these days.

But first, some of us started true day 1 with a traditional Japanese breakfast set in the hotel. Then we were off to our first stop: Shimogamo Shrine.

As with most all Japan shrines, the grounds were beautiful. We had a shrine host that provided some historical information about the 2100 year-old World Heritage site and watched an exclusive “12-layered” ceremonial Kimono dressing. This was a very nice, not over-crowded, immersive Japan experience. My only regret is that I had not been in Japan long enough to acquire change to do a proper prayer. I was particularly enamored by the folks putting their fortunes in the water then picking them up and reading the revealed messages. That looked really cool!

Next stop: Lunch. I forgot to take an establishing photo 🤦🏻‍♂️. Lunch was in the famous Arashiyama area of Kyoto where the Togetsu bridge was. We were given a few extra minutes here to explore the area a bit after eating. I brought the tripod and filters out for this one, but I had to reset the camera because it wasn’t allowing me to do a long exposure. Turns out the camera resets to JPG format from RAW so I didn’t notice till later that I needed to customize it back. Sadly Kyoto had been too warm for the trees to change to autumn colors just yet.

*Fujifilm X100VI 23mm f/2: 19mm (Wide Angle Adapter) 1/250s, f/4, ISO3200*

We regrouped at the bus and made our way to Kunjyu-Kan Incense shop which, to be honest, I wasn’t terribly excited about at first. We entered into this room first that was kind of like a science exhibit about our sense of smell! We stood with our heads in these boxes that had interesting incense scents, there was a section where we could smell some of the base ingredients they use to make the incense smell a certain way and some explanations about the base ingredients that I found very interesting. There were a series of dioramas that showed the process of making incense. In between this area and the shop was a ¥500 gachapon machine that dropped charms packed with incense for experiencing randomly dropped scents. I purchased one of these, but I regret not picking up more in retrospect. It turns out I really enjoyed this stop!

We returned back to the hotel after this stop and foraged around the nearby malls and Kyoto station for shopping and food. My mom was in the mood for noodles so we ended up at Osaba-Dokoro Aoi in Kyoto Station which turned out to be pretty popular with our tour group as we saw several familiar faces here while we dined.

*Fujifilm X100VI 23mm f/2: 1/250s, f/4, ISO3200*

And that concludes the official first day of the Central Japan Tour.

Central Japan Tour Day 1