Fushimi Inari - among red gates

Some people say that you haven't been to Japan if you didn't see Kyoto and that's what makes almost every tourist go there. Unfortunately, I don't completely agree with this statement, because among all the people who visit Kyoto, most of them misses the best part, which in my opinion is Fushimi Inari Shrine.
It was previously mentioned in my former posts about differences between shrines and temples, as well as in the one about places, which appeared in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha". However, I like it so much that I decided to create additional post.

The main reason for skipping this amazing place by many tourists is probably its odd location in the southern part of Kyoto. In reality, the whole complex is located just next to the Inari train station (5 minutes away from Kyoto), what makes it really easy to find the Shrine's main gate in a minute just after leaving the train.
Another reason why tourists may decide to skip it is the fact, that the entrance is free. I guess a lot of people may think, after reading such thing in their guide books, that if they don't need to pay for something, then it's not worth much. And in this case they are absolutely wrong!

There is a couple of quite impressive buildings behind the entrance gates of the shrine but the place is famous for something else.
It is famous for its numerous torii - red gates with enscripted names of people, who donated them after acheiving a business success. Yes, indeed, finding out about this disappointed me as well. These mysterious Japanese letters are nothing else but names of people, their companies and such things.

Anyway, the amount of torii corridors and rows surrounding the Inari mountain is unbelievable! Right after passing through the first torii tunnel there are even more of them and so on, enough for a 2 hour long walk.

The spaces between torii tunnels are filled with various kinds of places for giving prayers. One of them might be lighting a candle, a common thing among the worlds biggest religions.

Another way of praying in Shinto religion's shrine is writing it down on a special piece of wood called ema. Each person cam write their own prayer and hang up among the rest of them. In Fushimi Inari Shrine, those wooden plaques resemble foxes, which are the symbols of Inari's spirit.

And then there is another torii tunnel...

And plenty of little shrines...


And another shrine with foxes inside...

And so on.

One of the attractions of the walk among the Inari shrines is a lovely lake with beautiful cherry and plum trees around it, which bloomed when I was there.

In the middle of the pathway, even though the whole mountain belongs to the shrine, people may stop in an old restaurant run by the same family owners for for over a century. On the opposite side of the path there is a house were the last four generations of that family used to live. It is said in the guidebooks that the restaurants near the trail serve a unique dish - Kitsune Udon (Fox Udon), which is a noodle soup with pieces of fried tofu in it.

A big advantage of the place's size is that the crowds of visitors are not really visible. What is more, the amount of shrines in the area of Inari mountain is so huge, that I don't think anybody can get bored there. After taking each step there is always something new to look at.

The way back depends on the next place to go. If you choose the platform in the picture, it will take you back to Kyoto. If you choose the one from which I took the picture, then you'll get to Nara in one hour or so, just like we did.