So I'm way way behind on blogging for those who follow this thing... Right now I want to talk about my lovely day at Fushimi Inari Shrine! Fushimi Inari is a super famous shrine in Kyoto dedicated to the "Inari" kami, whose servants are foxes.
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Lots of fox guardians! |
The shrine is at the base of a mountain, and as you climb the mountain you will pass through hundreds of red "torii" gates. Each of the torii is donated by a local business or shrine to try to gain Inari's favor. I went together with some of the other exchange students - Nia, Daniel, McKayley, and the two Christines.
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| Daniel is ready for adventure time! |
We first had to take a bus to Kyoto Station which takes a good 30-40 minutes. Then there is a subway that stops right in front of the shrine, but of course all the route info was in Japanese and we couldn't find the stop on the map. We were about to take a bus, but some friendly old Japanese tour guide told us how to take the subway, which was great because the bus apparently is super slow and the subway only took a few minutes. So we arrived and explored the main shrine. The main shrine itself is beautiful even though the shrine is more famous for the torii gates surrounding it.
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| What a beautiful day! And the leaves are just starting to turn! |
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| Peace cranes at the shrine. |
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| Mini torii gates! I think you write your wish on them and then hang it up at the shrine. |
After walking around the main shrine, we set off on the main trail of torii gates up the mountain. We took several detours to explore the sites though! There are many different hiking trails other than the main trail with the gates, and the surrounding forest is very beautiful and peaceful even though it's such a popular tourist destination (the torii gates were even in the movie for Memoirs of a Geisha). Along the way there are tea shops, some of which had great views of the mountain. We stopped for snacks and drinks a couple of times but not for a sit down tea because they were a bit expensive.
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| One of the little teahouses! |
When we reached a stopping point maybe 1/3 of the way up, the two Christines decided to turn back because they had plans for the rest of the day. But we were determined to get to the top! I have to say the top was a bit anti-climatic though haha. But as we walked through the gates up the mountain, there were tons of smaller shrines, family altars, and cemeteries.
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| At one of the shrines along the path, you could draw a face on these foxes and write your wish and then hang it up! |
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| The donor's name is painting on a newly donated gate. |
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| The sight of torii gates was unavoidable... I think these were family altars/graves near the top of the mountain. |
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| The famous view of seemingly endless torii gates! It was beautiful with the sunlight peaking through. |
The entire mountain was beautiful and had a very mystical, spiritual feeling. It was worth it to do the whole path, and we all want to go back in the future and explore more of the side paths along the mountain. It was such a nice day with nice weather and good friends. Only downside - I was attacked by mosquitos! I was so covered with bites that I had to take Benadryl because I couldn't sleep because of the itching. Now that its a few weeks later though, mosquito season is pretty much over I think.
