Japan: Around Kyoto

Fushimi Inari Shrine is really a complex of five shrines combined together on the mountainside of Inari-san.  There is a 4-kilometer pathway that winds its way up to the top (elevation 233 meters).  The Hata family dedicated the shrine to the gods of rice and sake during the 8th century when the favors of agricultural deities were sought.  Today you could say they have been traded for the blessings of prosperity gods.

For tourists, the shrine is mostly known for its rows upon rows of vermilion-colored torri (shrine gates).

All is quiet

Hundreds of fox statues are placed around the shrines.  Foxes are considered to be the messenger of Inari (the god of cereals).  They all can be found holding a rice granary key in their mouth.

Due to the popularity of this shrine with Instagram-hungry tourists (and admittedly I am one of them), Hans agreed to wake up at 5 am so we could be at the shrine by about 6:30.  Indeed, when we arrived at the shrine the main entrance was nearly empty and the many kiosks along some of the pathways were still closed.  The site is open 24 hours so if you're feeling very adventurous you can visit at night.  I even brought a headlamp on this trip specifically if we ended up on the mountain after sunset.  Luckily for us, we were often the only people walking along the torri-lined paths and enjoyed a quiet walk through cedar forests, mini shrines, and cemeteries along the way.

Each Torri shrine gate has been donated by a Japanese business or individual so that they can benefit from good fortune.  The name of the donor is painted on the back side of each.  They range in size from ones that can fit in your hand to the massive ones along the paths.

These maps made the climb look deceptively simple!

We caught our first glimpse of Kyoto's skyline through an overcast haze

When we'd finally decided to descend back down, Hans spotted a sign that said we could follow a side trail to our next stop: Tofuku-ji.  I read that the mountains around Kyoto have many unmarked trails so it can be easy to get lost but a quick check on Google Maps confirmed that the trail would let us out in a residential area.  I'm not sure how much it paid off in the end because the "trail" turned out to be a paved service road with an unbelievably steep grade.  Walking down was a punishing exercise and it pretty much killed our feet for the rest of the day.

When we got to Tofuku-ji we discovered that it would not be open for another hour.  Doh!  We walked to the nearest train station, bought some convenience store food, and then decided to take the train back to Fushimi Inari so that we could see how crowded it is at 8:30.

Yup.  Definitely more people!

Then we went back to Tofuku-ji, a Buddhist temple.  Tofuku-ji is the site of many beautiful buildings and gardens.  The San-mon gate is the oldest Zen main gate in Japan.  Abbot's Hall (Hojo) has been fairly recently reconstructed (1890) and the Zen garden is relatively modern (1938) but both are lovely.  The Tsuten-kyo (Bridge to Heaven) spans a small gully lined with maple trees and it is supposed to be particularly beautiful in the fall.  I don't doubt it.

San-mon Gate

After visiting Tofuku-ji we had to make a difficult choice.  Hans wants to go to the top of nearby Mt. Hiei but with the skies being cloudy I wasn't sure how much it would be worth the cost of transportation (since our feet were clearly not going to be able to handle the hike).

I suggested that we go across town to another sightly out-of-the-way Buddhist temple.  One very cramped bus ride later we arrived at Rukuon-ji Temple and we still hadn't eaten our sad lunch yet!  We sat down at an ice cream stand where we ate our food and then we proceeded into the crowded grounds of the temple.

The main attraction is Kinkaku, The Golden Pavilion.  It is a hall reportedly containing relics of Buddha.  It has burned down many times but the reconstruction is still beautiful to look at.  Each of the three levels are designed to be examples of three different architectural styles:  The first level looks like an 11th-century imperial aristocratic home, the middle level is in the style f the warrior aristocracy.  The top level is in the Chinese zenshu-butsn style  The upper two levels are covered in gold leaf and topped with a phoenix statue (though I think it looks like an angry golden chicken).

The temple grounds themselves are very worn-looking and are focused on directing the masses all to the same viewing area.

Behold, the mighty chicken!

At this point it was about 2:30 in the afternoon and our feet were DONE.  We went back to the hostel to regroup and do some laundry because our clothes definitely needed a wash after a week on the road.

For dinner we went to a recommended pork katsu place in the shopping mall attached to Kyoto station.  While there was nothing wrong with any of the food it was disappointingly overpriced.  Sometimes that's going to happen when you're a tourist.

I made up for it in the late evening when I attended our hostel's okonomiyaki demonstration.  I was the first to arrive so I got my little cabbage pancake going on the grill.  The hostel staff member who was leading the class lamented that there may be a low turn out right before she told me to start cooking some pieces of thin-shaved pork.  I told her that once everyone could smell the bacon cooking they would come running - and I was right!  Soon we had a lovely gathering of people from all over the world:  USA, Canada, Japan, China, Argentina, South Korea, and Argentina.