Kyoto Part Deux

So this is a post of my second trip to Kyoto. I guess I should start coming up with more creative titles, since saying Kyoto Trip part 2 is like saying Dallas trip part 2 when you live in Garlington (Arlington or Garland).

So me and my friend Sean headed up to Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社). Here is a link to wikipedia for a description of what the shrine is for:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi_Inari-taisha

In a nutshell its a shrine that has torii (the red gates) lined from the bottom of a mountain to the top. This is the first torii to the shrine.

Up ahead is the main shrine at the bottom of the mountain.


There were people standing around throwing money into this building, then ringing a bell and clapping their hands.



Steps leading up to the mountain.

The shrine had something to do with a fox. Since the animal I resemble most is a fox I felt right at home here. Except the fox in this shrine were really evil looking...

Sean and I at a fork in the road. A bunch of Japanese girls that kept looking at us went left, so naturally we went left as well.

It was really amazing how many torii are in this shrine. This part specifically had thousands and thousands of torii.

Tried to take a picture of the other side, you can see how close together the torii are.






This is looking backwards. I realized they had writing on the back. I think each torii is sponsored by a family...

End of this section into another part of the shrine.


This is a map that kind of shows how big this shrine is. Its at least 2 miles to the top, and there were multiple different routes to the top and down the back. All covered in rows of torii.


This was a small shrine we found in the middle of the woods.



Good view of the torri from outside...


A nice little waterfall/stream along side the path.

About every 200 yards the torii would stop and there would be a small shrine like this.

View of a nice little pond about half way up the mountain.

You can see the torii winding thru the forest.


The path was also lined with these small tea houses.

View overlooking Kyoto. It was kind of a cloudy day. And also I later found out that during this time of year sand gets blown in from China and makes the visibility terrible. I kind of thought it was just pollution so that was a relief.




Nothing like a cold bottle of Pocari Sweat to quench your thirst after climbing a shrine.


Top of the shrine.

Me overlooking Kansai valley. My house is somewhere in the middle of that urban sprawl.

If you look at the bottom of the mountain you can see the oranges gates that start the shrine. So from that point to here is all pathways lined with torii.



Going down the backside.

Down the back the torii were spaced out a little further.


Nice little waterfall behind a tea house.

This building had a lot of noise coming from it. But the gate was locked so we figured not a good idea for two gaijin to walk in.

Proof to my dad that Japan in fact does have grass and trees.


At this point we got lost and ended up next to some high school. Anyway it had some nice cherry blossoms outside. We finally made it back to the train station.





I've got a few more videos to upload, but youtube is down right now so check back later on.

Chad