Fushimi Inari Taisha Temple is one of the most beautiful and picturesque in Japan. This temple is dedicated to the fox god Inari, the god of the rice, earthly wealth, and abundance.
Here all the details
Fuishimi Inari Taisha Temple can be easily reached from the Jr. Station of Fushimi Inari. At the train station the walls were decorated with many little foxes painted close to the station name, and the color scheme of bright orange reflected the temple itself.
Once at the station we started to walk to the temple following some foxy indication. We were very lucky since it was midweek and there was almost no one around. We had the chance to see the temple in all of its magnificence. Our only trouble was the terrible temperature of the Japanese summer. The humidity was suffocating. The very special aspect of this temple was the incredibly high number of torii donated from the believers in it: they build up long galleries all orange and black and walking through them is a unique experience. Eventually we reached the temple “doors”. Our experience was just at the begining and we didn’t know the incredible power we were going to meet there.
At the very moment we stepped in we saw the ablution spring, where it is recomended one should wash his or her hands (first the right one then the left one) and then mouth to wash away the unwise words spoken.
Below is Yuki while purifing himself. 
Below is the first building of the temple. We could see many statues of the holy fox, some of them had a votive red collar.
From the yard we wnt to buy some omamori and a souvenir or two. After that we finally went to the torii galleries. It was quite a sight, a neverending series of torii extending all the way to the side of the mountain. Once inside we noticed that there was a stairway inside. The temple was built on the side of the mountain and there was about 40 sections of stairways. All of them were covered in torii and along the way many little temples and Inari statue could be found.
Below are the torii. I love them, they are all orange beside the black top and the base. This is one of the first one, placed at the beginning of a ward. At a crtain point the Ward splits in two different way, both of them take visitors to the top of the hill.
Another sight of the tunnel, the torii were so close each other that the sun couldn’t reache the ground, giving the place a very special and strange atmosphere.
At the end of the torii ward we reached a yard. In this place there was an altar covered of fox-shaped tablets, coming closer we found that they were votive tablets each inscribed with a prayer to Inari. The tablets were shaped like a fox face and white painted. You just had to make an offer, write you wish on one of them, hug it with the other and pray. The fun thing was that each tablet was customized by the believers, creating an incredible amount of unique foxes. We also bought a tablet for our wishes ^^
These are the fox tablets, all wonderful ^^
After we made the offer, we pulled the rope of the bell. We also asked the fox to get back our lost bags, the fox is trustworty In the next episode you’ll learn the fox’s power began to reveal itself, but more on that later! After the fox tablets we walked through another torii ward up to a bifurcation. On a road-sign I read “bamboo forest” (in kanji). We couldn’t miss such a chance, so we followed the indication through a little street and while walking I took this picture.
After some walking we reached the forest. I have never seen so much bamboo!!! It was like being in the “House of Flying Daggers” movie. Really wonderful…
Too bad we didn’t se any pandas. That would have been fun! , After a little we came back to the torii gallery.
Every now and then there was a little yard with little shops and benchs to take some rest and get drinks. We also sat a while since the climb was very hard due to the hot weather and all the stuff we had. Even so, we reached the top and the view was wonderful. We could see the far away Kyoto. By the way, we walked quite a lot to have gotten so far from Kyoto °_°
This is the landscape at top of the hill of the Fushimi Inari Taisha. Stunning!
After a break we came back using a different route so we could see some other little temples along the way. The way back was quite easier even though if we would have stumbled it would have been horrible since we would probably have ended up rolling all the way down to the door of the main temple building. On the way back we saw a lot of little temples and altars with very beautiful and different statues.
Here are some pictures of them.
A grottesque wood statue
Stony frogs at the base of a torii
A bronze statue, maybe it’s Kannon in the mudra of the teaching
Yuki admires the buddha statue in Abhaya and Varada Mudra
A Bodhisatva statue, maybe Gakko or Nikko
A bunch of dolls ^^
A series of ropes where you’re supposed to tie the Omikuji to the wind.
After another long walk we reached the base of the hill and stopped at a shop to refresh ourselves. It was really hot so what’s better than a good strawberry Kakikori to cool down a bit? It’s nothing other than a Japanese crushed-ice drink. A machine grinds a cube of ice until it’s as thin as the snow and than it’s served with a fruit syrup. Delicious!!
Strawberry Kakikori eaten in a little shop close to the Fushimi Inari Taisha. The close up one is with strawberry syrup only, the other two are with milk too. Enjoy!!!
The crushed-ice drinks helped us a lot since climbing the hill was hard. But it was also needed to achieve a thing that I’ll tell you the next time. See you!!
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