We walk the 20 minutes from the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine to Tofukuji Temple. It’s such a pleasant walk, even after spending 2 ½ hours walking around the shrine.
This is the temple’s Sammon (main gate) and it is the oldest Zen temple gate in Japan.
And here’s the Sammon gate as well as the Hondo (main hall).
On the way we had bought a drink from a vending machine because we are so excited with buying drinks in the middle of the street, but once we go through the gate at Tofukuji we are stopped because you are not allowed to drink in the temple precinct. It’s not a problem at all, but we can’t see a bin and the guard can’t understand us, even when we crack out the phrasebook. In the end, another guard comes over and he points us in the right direction. Although we do need to buy a ticket to get into the temple grounds just to reach the bin. But, once we walk inside the grounds, we realise that it was well worth the entrance fee.
We then walk up to Kaisando Hall which is a mausoleum.
Afterwards we make our way to the main attraction, Tofukuji Hojo and the gardens. We sit here a while and soak up the sun and enjoy a well earned rest.
We make our way out of Tofukuji, but not before passing a couple more amazing buildings.
We check Google maps again and think the 20-25 minute walk to Rengeoin Sanjusangendo seems reasonable, so off we go.
