LOCATION: KYOTO (FUSHIMI-INARI)
MOOD: TRANQUIL
LISTENING TO: JEDI MIND TRICKS – THE DEER HUNTER
DIARY OF A COURTESAN:
The Kyoto trip was actually quite hard to plan for – the city is literally packed full of temples and shrines of varying sizes and shapes, and just looking at their names it's very difficult to tell which ones are worth going to. One place I knew I definitely wanted to go to was Fushimi-Inari, a place that you probably know from Memoirs of a Geisha. It's that place with all the red torii (traditional Japanese gates) lining the paths.
The road to Fushimi-Inari.
A sign of things to come.
Apparently life is quite cushy for priests - these guys were heading to work at around 1PM.
The entrance to the winding mountain paths.
The weekend was over and Clement had gone back to school, so I jumped on a train and headed out to Fushimi-Inari. It's a little way out of the city, but its seclusion adds to the atmosphere. The scorching sun from the weekend had retreated behind a pall of clouds and the moody atmosphere was perfect for the winding mountain paths lined with shrines and graves.
I had woken up quite late after the previous day's exploits, and by the time I arrived it was just after lunch time. The entrance to the complex is just near the station, and the front of the area is marked by a set of temples. I took a few photos but then made a bee-line for the row of red torii I saw in the distance. I had figured that the row of torii was the most iconic part of Fushimi-Inari, so I should make sure I got a few photos there. As it turned out I needn't have worried – the torii line the entire area, providing a pseudo-tunnel system to walk through as you climb up the mountain. It really is a spectacular sight.
I looked around for Sayuri, but alas I was around half a century too late.
Variations on a theme was the order of the day.
After you clear the initial set of gates there's a small shrine, and I was lucky enough to catch the ceremony.
Apart from the red torii gates, the other recurring theme at Fushimi-Inari are kitsune (foxes).
Fushimi-Inari has a number of different paths you can take and a number of rest stops where you can sit and enjoy a drink before tackling the next set of steps. The walk is also punctuated by a number of grave sites which are crammed full of tombstones, incense booths and miniature torii.
Minimalism clearly hadn't taken hold at the time.
I thought the obelisk was a nice touch.
The lake also made for a nice break from the hiking.
It's generally best to stick to the beaten path. This is about as far in as I got before it became a little too Apocalypse Now for me.
I ended up spending the entire afternoon at Fushimi-Inari, after which I took the train back for dinner with the usual suspects. I also got called out by the girl I had met on the train back from Himeji, but the party she invited me to unfortunately turned out to be a fizzer. They can't all be winners, I suppose. To compensate for the lack of photos of my disappointment, here are a couple more shots from Fushimi-Inari.
The view from one of the peaks. This is around two thirds of the way up.
Natural refridgeration. Obscenely expensive, but I bought one for the novelty value.
Less is definitely not more.
I wanted to take a break and have a seat, but the bench looked so rickety that I was afraid I'd break it.
The summit. It's all downhill from here.
I found this interesting sign in one of the clearings. It reads: 'Don't litter, or God will punish you.'
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