The secret of the Fushimi Inari fox

“You’ve seen the deer village, what about the fox village?” asked my Canadian Tokyo hostel buddy.

I hadn’t heard of the ‘fox village’. I had, however, heard of Fushimi Inari, boasting the #1 slot on both Tripadvisor Kyoto as well as Tripadvisor Japan. I was slightly disappointed just now to find it only on place #25 on Tripadvisor’s ‘Best World Landmarks 2016’, but maybe that, too, is quite an achievement.

For my final morning in Kyoto, I took a short ride in the train to Inari-station, ready to be astounded by further Japanese wonders.

This was an interesting destination on its own, as it wasn’t ‘just’ another stupefyingly beautiful temple. The Fushimi Inari is the head shrine of Inari, the god of rice, sake and cereals (aka grains, not Frosties and crunchy muesli). Fushimi Inari itself is indeed an important Shinto shrine, but its most unique attraction is its thousands of vermilion torii gates. (Vermilion is a red/scarlet colour, just for ye dearests who are as ignorant as me.) Senbon Torii in Japanese.

I’d seen pictures – they’d looked amazing. These gates went all the way up the height of Mount Inari, 233 metres.

Once again, I was pretty unprepared when I arrived at the train station. Once again, I was pretty pressed for time, too, as my flight to Korea was the same evening. I had a few hours to experience the wonders of the Landmark of Japan, and there wasn’t even a simple tourist leaflet at the train station.

(Luckily later on I found an adorable etiquette leaflet, which at least served the purpose of ornating my travel journal. You can find the whole thing here, it is ADORABLE.)

Fortunately there were impressive red gates straight outside of the train station. And also a significant amount of tourists. So, clearly, at least I was in the right place.

I love high places, as you may have gathered from  previous  entries , so I couldn’t forgive myself for not making it to the top of the mount (you can’t really call it a mountain, can you).

So, I decided to skip getting acquainted to the shrines at the bottom of the mount, and made my way straight towards the torii gates.

They were impressive, yes. As you’d expect. But I was also slightly frustrated by the amount of people who agreed with me and happened to be there with me that early morn, and even more so annoyed by the people blocking the path with the must-take-selfies with orange Japanese pillars. Sigh.

If that weren’t enough, I was annoyed by myself, such a spoil sport, thinking badly of these happy, relaxed, not-a-care-in-the-world fellow specimen (and speciwomen, even though spell check is red wiggle-underlining it as a faulty word, YOU SEXIST THING YOU), purely because I myself had organised my timing badly enough that I didn’t have the time to spend dawdling behind selfiers…

Mathematically the ascent was pleasing, as the amount of people was directly proportionate to the altitude of any given location. The higher you got, the less people there were. And the more ecstatic I was. 🙂 This was truly magical.

The foxy statues, the shrines and the torii gates were magnificent, like nothing I’d seen before. It was beautiful and fun at the same time. The foxes, kitsune in Japanese, are messengers of the god Inari, and many of them hold the key to rice granaries in their mouths. Lonelyplanet adds interestingly: On an incidental note, the Japanese traditionally see the fox as a sacred, somewhat mysterious figure capable of ‘possessing’ humans – the favoured point of entry is under the fingernails.

Of course, adds the Fushimi Inari Shrine Etiquette Leaflet, the Inari God is not a fox.

By the time I was half-way, there were few other people. I wandered around the graveyard-esque shrines and took failed self-timer pictures with various hidden foxes and disused miniature gates. Moments like this I consider as some of the most… liveable. Exploring fascinating, beautiful, deserted, mysterious, magical corners of the earth.

The view was pretty decent too.

And that wasn’t even the top, btw.

The peak itself was stunningly…

NON-EXISTENT.

Well, it did exist, I’m sure, but you sure did not have a peaky view from it.

But no worries, it was a wonderfully magical experience on the whole.

There were various indoor museum/shop little buildings with moewing cats too, which were super atmospheric.

Then the descent back into the Tourist Ocean. Happily I realised I even had the time to wander around them pointless junk adorable souvenir shops.

There was even a little food market! Which didn’t give out free yatsuhashi-tasters, to my humongous disappointment, but I did sample the famous Japanese dumplings, gyoza, as breakfast #2. Good stuff.

Then, jumped on the train, back to my beloved hostel, and onwards and upwards towards KOREA.

Kyoto was one of my favourite places ever, and ultimately Fushimi Inari definitely deserves its priority slots in lists of top travel destinations. Even in a hurry and sleep-deprived, it was one of the most stunning, envigorating experiences I’ve had. True Japan. I will miss you. Well, I already do.

Today’s question: WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?

Today’s real question: What comment competition should I have next on my blog?

(Feel free to answer the first one too.)

À bientôt,

l’Emzy (last night I dreamt I lost my French. C’était tellement horrible.)

BISOUS