Japan Day 9 - Fushimi-Inari and on to Hiroshima
Another of the must see sights in Kyoto, in my opinion, is the Fushimi-Inari shrine. This shrine includes miles of Torii gates lined up into tunnels through which you can hike up the mountain where it resides. We figured we would check that out in the morning before heading to Hiroshima by bullet train in the afternoon. The main area of the shrine is at the bottom of the mountain. The sort of mascot of the shrine is a fox, thought to be a messenger for the gods, so fox statues are quite abundant in addition to the Torii gates.
Passing through a Torii gate tunnel for a few hundred meters, you get to the second main shrine area, where you can buy the usual trinkets and fortunes, and pray at a few smaller shrine buildings. They also had an interesting little shrine where you could make a wish, then lift a stone sphere off the top of the shrine, and if the sphere was lighter than you expected it was said your wish would come true. So of course we had to give that a try, and were all surprised by how light the stone spheres were.
Unfortunately, though we had planned to do the full hike to the top of the mountain and back, it was closed due to typhoon damage. We could see there were trees that had fallen on the gates, and there were crews working to clear the trees and put some of the gates back upright. We attempted to take some pictures near the short stretch of gates we came though, but they didn't turn out great thanks to the ridiculous crowds. We did manage to get a couple with no people in them with some careful angle selection and patience.
On our way back to the main shrine we took a side path over to where the end of the long hike was, and were pleasantly surprised to see that while we couldn't hike up that path, we could take pictures there with long stretches of Torii tunnel behind us guaranteed to have no people because no one
was allowed past the barriers. Silver linings indeed!
Down at the bottom again, by the main shrine, there was a little festival going on it seemed. There were a number of food stands, so Cackett got to try one of his must-have items on the trip: takoyaki. Takoyaki are a street food common to festivals, and consist of octopus (tako) grilled (yaki) with batter in special pans that create spherical pastries, of sorts (though obviously savory not sweet). We also did a bit more shopping, and wandered around the town before getting back on the train to start making our way to Hiroshima.
We picked up some eki-ben (train station bentos) in Kyoto station to take with us on the bullet train. I had some inari sushi- sushi rice wrapped in simmered tofu, as well as some cucumber sushi, and Charlie got a beef bowl bento. Cackett got a more varied bento, and we all headed for the train. The shinkansen to Hiroshima took a couple hours, then we grabbed a bus to our new AirBnB, this time an apartment within what seemed to be a whole apartment tower that was all AirBnB rentals. It was also quite nice, though nothing will ever match that townhouse in Kyoto, I think. For dinner, we checked out a well-reviewed okonomiyaki place, and I was glad to say that okonomiyaki lived up to what I'd heard of it. It's a noodle and vegetable and anything-else-you-can-think-of pancake thing (Charlie suggested "the garbage plate of Japanese food"), and was totally delicious.
Passing through a Torii gate tunnel for a few hundred meters, you get to the second main shrine area, where you can buy the usual trinkets and fortunes, and pray at a few smaller shrine buildings. They also had an interesting little shrine where you could make a wish, then lift a stone sphere off the top of the shrine, and if the sphere was lighter than you expected it was said your wish would come true. So of course we had to give that a try, and were all surprised by how light the stone spheres were.
On our way back to the main shrine we took a side path over to where the end of the long hike was, and were pleasantly surprised to see that while we couldn't hike up that path, we could take pictures there with long stretches of Torii tunnel behind us guaranteed to have no people because no one
was allowed past the barriers. Silver linings indeed!
Down at the bottom again, by the main shrine, there was a little festival going on it seemed. There were a number of food stands, so Cackett got to try one of his must-have items on the trip: takoyaki. Takoyaki are a street food common to festivals, and consist of octopus (tako) grilled (yaki) with batter in special pans that create spherical pastries, of sorts (though obviously savory not sweet). We also did a bit more shopping, and wandered around the town before getting back on the train to start making our way to Hiroshima.
We picked up some eki-ben (train station bentos) in Kyoto station to take with us on the bullet train. I had some inari sushi- sushi rice wrapped in simmered tofu, as well as some cucumber sushi, and Charlie got a beef bowl bento. Cackett got a more varied bento, and we all headed for the train. The shinkansen to Hiroshima took a couple hours, then we grabbed a bus to our new AirBnB, this time an apartment within what seemed to be a whole apartment tower that was all AirBnB rentals. It was also quite nice, though nothing will ever match that townhouse in Kyoto, I think. For dinner, we checked out a well-reviewed okonomiyaki place, and I was glad to say that okonomiyaki lived up to what I'd heard of it. It's a noodle and vegetable and anything-else-you-can-think-of pancake thing (Charlie suggested "the garbage plate of Japanese food"), and was totally delicious.
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