Fushimi Inari Shrine
Got up nice and early again and took a local train a few minutes away to Fushimi Inari Shrine. Another famous Kyoto shrine. Absolutely adored this place. The torii tunnel extends for over a mile into the forest and winds its way back down to the city. Of course we walked the entire thing because we are hard-asses.
Once again it was hot as holy balls this day.
Rather huge kitsune statue.
Start of the torii pathway.
One more of many many fox statues.
The pathway splits off into too sections. It winds up the side of the mountain and back down again. I believe we took the left path?
Facing the way up the mountain.
Facing back down the mountain. Each torii gate has been donated by a person or company and the name and date is inscribed on the back side.
In the middle of the woods now. Very pretty and green, full of birds and cicadas of course.
There were literally hundreds and hundreds of these little mini shrines along the way. You can stop to pray and offer things like sake or rice crackers.
About half way up. There are little shops and small restauraunts (like 2 or 3 people seater small) that you can stop and rest at along the way. We stopped for a soft cream not far from here.
I'd like to imagine this is a giant cat sleeping on top of the torii gate tunnel.
Success! View from the (near) top. The actual summit was rather underwhelming. We didn't even realize we had reached the top until the trail started sloping down again.
Cool looking bugs chilling out around the shrine.
Rather awesome looking fountain for washing before prayer.
And then we finished the trail and checked the time and somhow it was only just past noon. Feeling incredibly successful we decided to be even harder-asses and catch a train to Nikko. More on that tomorrow.