Exploring Kyoto (part 1)

Our group took an early morning plane trip from Haneda Airport to Osaka airport, took the limousine bus and checked-in at a hotel in Universal City.

Since our rooms will only be available at around 1PM, we maximized our stay by leaving our luggages with the hotel concierge and walked to the train station to go to Kyoto.

Kyoto is the ancient capital of Japan where one can see a mix of ancient architecture and modern metropolis. 

One will surely appreciate seeing the structures of historical temples and cultural heritage sites as well as modern buildings such as the Kyoto train station, hotels and shopping centers.

The first thing that you will notice at Kyoto is the modern look of the city’s train station.

The interiors of the Kyoto train station 

Once you step out of the Kyoto station, the Kyoto Tower can be seen.

The Kyoto Tower stands 131 meters tall and is
 Kyoto's tallest building

The Kyoto Tower is located just across the Kyoto train station. It is Kyoto’s tallest building and has a viewing platform located 100 meters above ground where visitors can get a 360 degree view of Kyoto. The tower was completed in 1964 which is the same year when as the opening of the shinkansen and the Tokyo Olympics.

Kyoto served as Japan's capital and the emperor's residence from years 794 until 1868. It is now the country's seventh largest city with a population of around 1.4 million people.

Over the centuries, Kyoto was destroyed by many wars and fires, but due to its historic value, the city was dropped from the list of target cities for the atomic bomb and spared from air raids during World War II . Today, many tourists visit Kyoto since it has preserved temples, shrines and historical structures which takes one to Japan's nostalgic past.

In order to visit the shrines in a comfortable and hassle-free manner, our host family rented two cars with drivers for our group.

Our first stop was the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is known for the ultimate torii gate experience.

Visitors walk through the torii gates

Fushimi Inari Shrine is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates in bright orange colour. It is what is locally referred to as Senbon torii (Senbon means “a thousand” in Japanese). The torii gates and its network of structures lead to  the the hiking trails that goes into the woods and goes to the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds.

Fushimi Inari is the most important of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. It is a shrine visited by locals and tourists and is believed to be a shrine that is the deity of business prosperity.

Friendly Japanese women wearing traditional
kimono outfits visiting the shrine smile
 for a photo

The back of the torii gates are inscribed with the names of the donators.

The torii gates along the entire trail are donations by individuals and companies, and you will find the donator's name and the date of the donation inscribed on the back of each gate. The cost starts around 400,000 yen for a small sized gate and increases to over one million yen for a large gate.

Visitors may write their wishes

Cards with fox design containing written
wishes  are hanged by visitors

It takes around 2 to 3 hours to hike to the summit of Mount Inari, however, visitors are free to walk just as far as they wish before turning back. Along the way, there are multiple smaller shrines with stacks of miniature torii gates that were donated by visitors with smaller budgets.

Aside from the torii gates walking experience, visitors also go to the coin tossing area to wish for luck and love. 

Visitors also visit the horse placed inside an orange house structure. Some even drop their business cards inside since locals believe it brings luck to the individual and their business.

The face of the horse that is believed to bring
good luck or prosperity to one's business.

Other visitors may also get a miniature torii gate which they can get as a souvenir or write on with their wishes prior to hanging them.

 
The torii gate experience at Fushimi Inari shrine was good. The vibe is very peaceful and the striking orange coloured toriis made us feel happy.

More posts on Kyoto in my next blog post. Cheers!