Kyoto during Sakura Season - Part 3: Fushimi Inari Taisha

The third part of the Kyoto series revolves around Fushimi Inari Taisha.

Welcome!

The Fushimi Inari Taisha is located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto and is the head shrine of Inari. Inari Okami was the Japanese Shinto god of rice and agriculture.  The shrine resides at the base of the Inari yama (mountain). Bright beautiful big orange shrine buildings.

Since Inari was also seen as the patron of business, each Japanese business over the years would donate a Torii, the big gates, to worship Inari in hopes of wealth and good business. So as you can see, the torii's line the footpaths up the mountain. The pathway wanders 4km up the mountain and it is said that there are 1300 torii gates. We found the torii's could be made of stone or wood. The back of each tori is engraved with the sponsor's name.

A fork in the road - which way?!

 

Path lined with never-ending torii gates:

 

And if get claustrophobic surrounded by so many orange torii gates and want to step out, you're out of luck. You are literally surrounded by a thick forest and very steep slopes.

But alas, we reached another shrine, nestled somewhere along the mountain. Here we can cleanse ourselves (like to sumo wrestlers) with some cleansing water using the cleansing ladle.

 

 

 

Drink up Matt. I'm sure it's DE-licious! I mean only millions of other people have drank from those ladles before you.

 



This is the entrance of the next rows of torii gates. The foxes next to the main gates serve as mystical messengers and often have a key (to the rice granary) in their mouths.

 

This time around, we walked through a small little bamboo forest. Pretty.

 

How did it get so dark, so quickly?!



 

After a nice long walk, time to have a little snack and eat tsujiira senbei. These are the original treats of what we know today as the fortune cookie, and dates back to at least the 19th century. Here's the guy who made our tsujiira senbei - yummy!:

 

 

 





Kyoto during Sakura Season - Part 2: Kinkakau-ji

In this 2nd part series of our weekend trip to Kyoto, we are going to explore Kinkaku-ji. According to the Lonely Planet travel books, the Kinkaku-ji temple, also known as the Golden Pavillion, is the 2nd most famous sight in Japan, just after Mount Fuji.

This temple is famous for it being covered in gold leaf in its top 2 stories. Also known as Rokuon-ji, this temple was originally built in 1397 as a retirement home to shogun Ashikaga Yoshi-mitsu. After his death, his son converted it to a Buddhist temple, complying to his father's wishes. The original temple only had the top storey covered in gold leaf and is set in the middle of a pond. It has a bronze phoenix on top of the roof. In 1950 a crazy monk decided to burn the place down and tried to commit suicide (unsuccessfully). Oddly enough, he was only sentenced to 7 years of prison. Anyway, the full reconstruction was completed in 1955 and followed the original design exactly except they decided to cover the top 2 stories of the temple with gold leaf.

All I can say is, Ashigkaga Yoshi-mitsu sure knows how to retire in style!

My, err I mean, Ashikaga's retirement home

The phoenix on top of the roof, symbolizing the imperial family.


Us with our future retirement home in the background. Everyone's welcome!

 The pond garden:

No retirement home is complete without its own waterfall!

It is said historically that Aishikaga (that's right, we're on first name basis) invented the tea ceremony and turned it into an art form. This is known to be the oldest tea room in all of Japan and all current tea rooms resemble this layout (and they do!).



Kyoto during Sakura Season - Part 1: Arashiyama

Hello family and friends,

Sorry I have not been blogging. Time flies by so quickly here. I have spent the past few weeks getting ready for school. I had a school Orientation and Opening Ceremony to attend over the past week. I will blog about that later.

I realize I am very behind on my blog so I will try to do my best. Gambarimasho!

Last week, Matt and I went to Kyoto for the weekend. We heard that Kyoto is very beautiful during Sakura season and it is true. However, I think last weekend was also THE BUSIEST WEEKEND in Kyoto. The streets were packed with people all out to enjoy what the city had to offer.

Now, I want to introduce everyone to the 5 part series of the beauty of Kyoto.

Part 1: Arashiyama

Arashiyama is a little traditional town just west of Kyoto and boasts many beautiful scenic views. This was recommended to us by Matt's Japanese co-workers. And we are so glad they suggested it. This is THE place to visit if you want to see some of the natural beauties of Japan. Though there are many different attractions, Matt and I went to the Togetsu-kyo bridge, Tenryu-ji temple, and the Bamboo Grove.

The original Togetsu-kyo bridge was built in 1606 (the current one is a reconstruction) and is one of the popular sites in Arashiyama because the view of the bridge over the Katsura-gawa river is breathtaking. As you can see in one of the photos, the bridge was PACKED with people, so we avoided it. But we were still able to capture the views up and down the river.

After the Togetsu-kyo bridge, we went to Tenryu-ji Temple. The Tenryu-ji temple is renowned for its stroll gardens in Kyoto, especially during Sakura season. The temple itself was built in 1339 after a monk had a dream of a dragon rising from a nearby river, hence the name Tenryu actually translates into "heavenly dragon". Though the original temple building was constructed in 1345, the current temple buildings were rebuilt in the 1900's. We were unable to explore any of the buildings.

The Teaching Hall and Ohojo (assembly hall):

 

 

The Zen garden was designed by artist Musō Soseki and features a huge pond with carefully laid out trees and shrubbery. Beautiful, eh?!

 

Here's us hanging out by the garden:



 

After the Tenryu-ji temple, we walked over to the Bamboo Grove. The bamboo grove is a huge, almost magical forest filled with such tall bamboo trees that it blocks the sun. How many people knew bamboo trees had leaves raise their hands!

 

Pictures from top left, clockwise:

1. Picture of the bamboo grove and the peaceful walking path.

2. Picture of fellow tourists who were also enjoying the bamboo grove. See the girl with the kimono - isn't that awesome?! There were many people in kimonos this weekend, it was amazing to see.

3. Close up shot of the bamboo stalks.

4. View of the bamboo leaves blocking the sun.

 

This is one of my favourite pictures taken in the bamboo grove - breathtaking, isn't it?! The couple on the right doesn't look to shabby either!



 

And so we say goodbye to Arashiyama. You have been a great host.

 

 

 

 Next stop: Kinkaku-ji, otherwise known as the Golden Pavillion.