After being slightly disappointed by the Bamboo forest, I still needed to cover one more place before sundown. The Fushimi Inari shrine is a place I’ve been wanting to visit in the longest time, way before I watched the kid run through the thousand torii gates in the Memoirs of a Geisha… it’s part of my bucket list. I needed it not to suck, because well, I’ve travelled all the way to be in some place I’d really wanted to go in the longest time. Thankfully, it hadn’t disappoint.
It was a 10-minute walk from the Bamboo forest to the JR Saga-Arashiyama station (20 if you’re like me, getting distracted by a local hidden bookstore selling unique, handmade postcards). Take the train on the JR Sagano line back to Kyoto station (15 minutes) before hopping over to the JR Nara line which will take you to JR Inari station on the Nara line (5 minutes). The famous shrine is just a 5-minute walk away and the thousand torii gates are another 5 up a thousand stairs.
From what I’ve gathered reading and asking around, Inari is the God of rice. The Inari was seen as a patron of business, where abundance of wealth and prosperity were most sought after. Therefore, merchants worshipped it. The Fushimi Inari shrine sits at the base of a mountain, also called Inari, that has a trail that takes approximately 2 hours to trek before reaching the peak.
Kitsune, or Foxes were regarded as messengers and were supposedly found in the inari shrines though I had been fortunate/unfortunate enough not to have ran into them during my trek. The foxes and the bright orange shrine gates were something that’s unique to the Fushimi Inari shrine. I’ve been to a couple of shinto shrines in Japan where people will write their wishes and prayers on a piece of wood and hang it in the temple grounds. None of the shrines I’ve been to had the offerings in the shape of the iconic orange torii gate. There were even prayer offerings in the shape of fox heads. Most didn’t have prayers written on them, just pure creativity and a teeny bit of genius.
During my hour of exploring the temple grounds and hiking up the stairs through the torii gates, naturally I made a bunch of friends. There were Aris, Ari and Bobby from Indonesia whom were snapping pictures with their fancy schmancy cameras. They were surprised to find out that I speak a little bit of Bahasa Indonesia and they were even more surprised to know that I was travelling alone. Our encounter was short as I was racing against the sunset to cover more ground. It was great to meet fellow travellers from Southeast Asia.
There were too many tourists at the base of the trail, eagerly snapping pictures and waiting for their turn for their own photo op. PRO TIP: There are THOUSANDS of those torii gates. Chances are, if you bother walking a little deeper, you’d find less people and still the same number of majestic toriis behind you. If you are travelling solo like me, good luck trying to get someone to take a photograph for you. Thankfully, I met Ammar. He was photographing a Coke bottle when I chanced past him. We struck up a great conversation and he offered to take some photos of me with the toriis as a background. Yay. The dude haz mad photography skillz. You should check out his Instagram here. Trust me, he knew how to make me look decent on camera.
I didn’t manage to hike up to the peak because the mosquitos were killing me. They were vicious and their bites were so painful I was tearing up and scratching my skin off till it bled. ANOTHER PRO TIP: BRING INSECT REPELLENT. Other than the mosquitos causing the experience I will never forget, it was a pleasant walk. The sun was setting, the weather was cool and the further you hike, the less people you see and the more cats you find minding their own business. Even when it was semi dark the trail was beautiful.
I hiked back down the trail after surrendering to the wrath of the mosquito bites and tried looking for the stalls selling fortune cookies, alas, it was too late and all the stalls were closed. Oh wells. Back to Kyoto City.
Part of the reason why I am totally delaying my posts was because I am reliving my trip through writing these travelogues. Every post I publish marks a day less and this post signifies the end of my stay in Kyoto. I was going to catch a plane to Tokyo the next day to meet my friends who were already there. As much as I didn’t want to leave beautiful Osaka and Kyoto, I had to. My vacation time here is up. Someday I’ll come back during work time, but it’s gonna be different.
I took advantage of the all-you-can-ride bus pass and went back to Gion for one last chigiri mochi and a walkabout before finally boarding that bus and headed back to the hostel. It was perfect timing because the moment I stepped into the machiya, it started pouring and the storm lasted all night. Thank God.
Standing by the Kyoto station staring up at the tower I didn’t have the budget for this time, I bade farewell to Kyoto. Tomorrow the Haruka express awaits me to take me back to Kansai International Aiport for my flight to Tokyo.