Japan Day 2: Kyoto & Suntory Yamazaki Distillery
Our second day in Japan (but technically, our first full day) was off to a busy start. Our chilly morning started early, at 6:00 AM, to get to Fushimi Inari Taisha’s thousands of torii gates in Kyoto. As with most popular tourist spots, our goal was to try to beat the crowd by heading there as early as we could. Thanks to jet lag, getting up early wasn't much of an issue for the kids, so we were able to leave our lodging promptly at 6:00 AM. Although I should have seen it coming, no one warned me that I was going to get more of a cardio and endurance workout during this trip than I get for the whole year.
We grabbed a bunch of easy food at the infamous 7-Eleven store (which is nothing like the 7-Eleven in the U.S.) at a train station before we hopped on our 1-hourish ride to Kyoto. Something to know about Japanese culture is that eating and drinking on the go is frowned upon; to respect the food you are about to consume, you must sit and take the time to eat. So, that includes no eating on the subway or train (unless on a bullet train or long-distance ride). Eating on the property of the shrine is also banned, so we ended up gulping down all the onigiris (Japanese rice balls) and sandos right outside of the entrance. We had no problem burning through the breakfast calories while going through thousands of steps to get to the top. There weren't many places for Zaylee to take a break, so we did our best to keep our pace and not cause a traffic jam. Zoe, despite intermittently complaining about the steps, was flying through those gates. Zaylee gave her very best, often insisting that she didn't need any help going up. Many passersby found her to be cute.
After reaching the top, half of the group practically flew down to make it to our reserved group tour at the Suntory Yamazaki Distillery. The kids weren't too thrilled that mommy and daddy ditched them so quickly (thank you, Nan and Audrey, for bringing them back to Osaka!) to drink some Japanese whisky. Yamazaki whisky suddenly topped everyone's radar several years ago when it began winning consecutive international whisky awards. Securing a group tour for this place is not easy—it's a high-demand, low-supply situation, so gaining access is by a lottery system, aka pure luck. We were able to secure 5 spots. After an informative and hard-to-access distillery tour, we were taken to a tasting room where we tried very concentrated whisky flavors (think alcohol levels of 60%+). When you do go there, make sure you eat well before starting the tour. Food is not available at the distillery, only some snacks are offered during the tasting course. Let's just say I had a very rough night and my stomach tragically rejected our wagyu BBQ dinner.
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