Fushimi Inari Shrine

Kon'nichiwa again! Here is yet another installment of my recent Japan trip, and this time, let me take you to one of the most popular tourist destinations in Kyoto, and that is the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

                   

Fushimi Inari shrine  is the head shrine of the spirit Inari of the Shinto religion in Japan. The shrine sits at the foot of a mountain also named Inari which is 233 meters above sea level.

We traveled to Fushimi Inari from Nara, and from there we took the JR Nara Line towards Kyoto and we got off at Inari station. We took the local train and we paid Y670. The shrine is just across the train station.

This shrine is famous for its fox statues, because foxes are regarded as messengers. The foxes hold a key for the granary, because apparently Inari is the deity for rice.

A lot of locals of course go there to worship, but a lot more tourists go, just to take pictures and see firsthand the torii gates that make it so popular.

This is the main tori gate that you see when you exit the train station, and from there you start walking up until you get to the main building. There are several structures inside, but I won't go into so much details as I wouldn't know what I am talking about.

This building was filled with wrapped things, so maybe they were offerings, or they could have been incense, I'm not sure. We did not spend so much time looking, so as not to bother the worshipers.

These are 'wishes' that they hang, and I think you get to put the words for a certain fee and then you hang it somewhere.

This is the main entrance to the shrine, and we made the mistake of going there on a Sunday as we were itching to see Kyoto after gallivanting around Osaka on our first day. The place was packed!

The highlight of the shrine is the thousands of torii gates, known as senbon torii. These came from donations of people all over the world who has a wish that they hope to come true, or one whose wish had already come true and they want to give thanks.

At the entrance to the torii gates, the scene was like the picture above this photo. It was so crowded it was so hard to walk. But the crowds stopped after the first tunnel and then they went back.

We walked further on, and we just had to wait for a while for the crowds to thin out so that we could get pictures like this, and a few seconds is all you get, so you always have to get your camera ready.

Apparently, this shrine draws 2.69 million visitors in just 3 days during the Japanese New Year! So the crowds that we encountered while we were there was nothing!

I took this picture from a higher vantage point, and from the side, just so we get to see another perspective. One side of the torii do not have any writings, and on the other side there are inscriptions.

This is the one side of the gates. Tourists like us just go and walk through these gates. Worshipers apparently meditate while walking through the tunnels, but I think it is impossible to do any meditations with the crowds!

I was happy I was able to get a picture of the tunnel human-free! Ha ha ha!

The gates stretch for as long as 3 km, if I am not mistaken, and they continue until you get to the top of the mountain. We walked quite a bit, and covered quite a distance, but after a while, we also started to go back.

This is the side that does not have the inscriptions, so pretty plain looking. The other side make it look interesting.

The wishes on a stand. 

It was quite an experience being there, and the crowds did not dampen our experience. It would have been nicer if there were less people, but since it is the most popular destination, I guess that is wishing for the moon.

If you're planning on going there, it may be better to go on a weekday, perhaps there will be less people that time. Stay tuned for more adventures, and you can read more travel destinations here.