The posts and summary for the whole trip, can be found here
♥November 27th Wednesday♥
Our last full day in Kyoto, and we decided to visit 2 more temples, Fushimi Inari Shrine 伏見稲荷大社 and Tofukuji 東福寺 which is on the same JR Nara Line, and one station away from another.
To be honest, if I were to plan for the holiday again, I would skip Nijo Castle, and probably visit a few temples less. We had in total visited 8 temples this trip! Way too many. Unfortunately, I can't turn back time, but will learn from this trip.
From Wiki -
Fushimi Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社, famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates (鳥居), is the head shrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is 233 metres above sea level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines.
Since early Japan Inari was seen as the patron of business, and merchants and manufacturers have traditionally worshipped Inari. Each of the torii at Fushimi Inari Taisha is donated by a Japanese business. First and foremost, though, Inari is the god of rice.
Guess maybe it's a shrine for patron of business, and red is an auspicious colour, we see red everywhere.
A Taiwanese wishing (on her wishing plague or Ema 絵馬) she would pass her exams and become an official teacher soon. Hope her wish is granted!
There were bunches of threaded origami cranes hung at the wishing board. All the best to them too.
For us non-believer, we just rang the bell at the shrine for good luck.
Statue of foxes, which are the messenger of Inari, are found around the shrine.
Even the Ema (絵馬) or the wishing plagues are in the shape of foxes.
The trail leading up the Inari mountain is lined with torii gates (鳥居).
With the donors named written at the back, as well as the date the torii is donated.
After Fushimi Inari Shrine, we headed towards Tofukuji 東福寺, which is 1 JR station away.
It's supposed to be another good place to view autumn leaves; but by this time, seriously, it was just another temple to me, I wasn't really enjoying myself. Moreover, it was so crowded at the temple.
I was so glad the temple visit was over, as it was a super cold day.
Thank goodness for a sweet stall set up opposite the temple, which offered complimentary hot tea, seats around a couple of heaters, and free access to the samples of the various sweets they were selling.
Since it was our last night in Kyoto, we all wanted to go back to Gion 祇園 for some shopping. Unfortunately, it started raining when we reached there.
We found a yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurant for dinner, which didn't have most of what we wanted. So we had a quick bite and left. The rain subsided a bit, but it was still wet.
Yasaka Shrine 八坂神社, Yasaka Jinja), also known as Gion Shrine seemed interesting, but nope, I wasn't visiting another temple!
I stood outside the shrine with the girls while the hubs went into to have a quick look, there, we looked out to Shijo （四条通）junction at Gion.
While we were shopping, we were very lucky to spot a big group of Geishas walking out from Hanamikoji Dori 花見小路通, they were catching cabs and seemed like they were heading to some function which invited/hired (ok, I don't know how this Geisha thing works) all of them.
After shopping (not that we did much), as we were not satisfied with our earlier dinner, we went searching for another restaurant.
We chose Heikichi Negiya aka the Heikichi Onion Shop 葱や平吉, a restaurant which featured mostly spring onion or onion dishes.
This is some special grilled onion, a recommended dish, but to me it was just another white onion.
Their yakitori was better than the earlier place that we went to though.
Then it was back to the hotel to pack for our next stop.
♥November 27th Wednesday♥
Our last full day in Kyoto, and we decided to visit 2 more temples, Fushimi Inari Shrine 伏見稲荷大社 and Tofukuji 東福寺 which is on the same JR Nara Line, and one station away from another.
To be honest, if I were to plan for the holiday again, I would skip Nijo Castle, and probably visit a few temples less. We had in total visited 8 temples this trip! Way too many. Unfortunately, I can't turn back time, but will learn from this trip.
From Wiki -
Fushimi Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社, famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates (鳥居), is the head shrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is 233 metres above sea level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines.
Since early Japan Inari was seen as the patron of business, and merchants and manufacturers have traditionally worshipped Inari. Each of the torii at Fushimi Inari Taisha is donated by a Japanese business. First and foremost, though, Inari is the god of rice.
Guess maybe it's a shrine for patron of business, and red is an auspicious colour, we see red everywhere.
A Taiwanese wishing (on her wishing plague or Ema 絵馬) she would pass her exams and become an official teacher soon. Hope her wish is granted!
There were bunches of threaded origami cranes hung at the wishing board. All the best to them too.
For us non-believer, we just rang the bell at the shrine for good luck.
Statue of foxes, which are the messenger of Inari, are found around the shrine.
Even the Ema (絵馬) or the wishing plagues are in the shape of foxes.
The trail leading up the Inari mountain is lined with torii gates (鳥居).
With the donors named written at the back, as well as the date the torii is donated.
After Fushimi Inari Shrine, we headed towards Tofukuji 東福寺, which is 1 JR station away.
It's supposed to be another good place to view autumn leaves; but by this time, seriously, it was just another temple to me, I wasn't really enjoying myself. Moreover, it was so crowded at the temple.
I was so glad the temple visit was over, as it was a super cold day.
Thank goodness for a sweet stall set up opposite the temple, which offered complimentary hot tea, seats around a couple of heaters, and free access to the samples of the various sweets they were selling.
Since it was our last night in Kyoto, we all wanted to go back to Gion 祇園 for some shopping. Unfortunately, it started raining when we reached there.
We found a yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurant for dinner, which didn't have most of what we wanted. So we had a quick bite and left. The rain subsided a bit, but it was still wet.
Yasaka Shrine 八坂神社, Yasaka Jinja), also known as Gion Shrine seemed interesting, but nope, I wasn't visiting another temple!
I stood outside the shrine with the girls while the hubs went into to have a quick look, there, we looked out to Shijo （四条通）junction at Gion.
While we were shopping, we were very lucky to spot a big group of Geishas walking out from Hanamikoji Dori 花見小路通, they were catching cabs and seemed like they were heading to some function which invited/hired (ok, I don't know how this Geisha thing works) all of them.
After shopping (not that we did much), as we were not satisfied with our earlier dinner, we went searching for another restaurant.
We chose Heikichi Negiya aka the Heikichi Onion Shop 葱や平吉, a restaurant which featured mostly spring onion or onion dishes.
This is some special grilled onion, a recommended dish, but to me it was just another white onion.
Their yakitori was better than the earlier place that we went to though.
Then it was back to the hotel to pack for our next stop.
[...] photos during our Japan trip, more than a month later, when I sorted out the photos taken on Nov 27th, I spotted these 4 persons in a photo the hubs took of the girls and I at the Fushimi Inari JR [...]
ReplyDelete[...] Part 5 : Day 5 – Eikando 永観堂, Kiyomizu-dera 清水寺, Higashiyama District Part 6 : Day 6 – Fushimi Inari Shrine 伏見稲荷大社, Tofukuji 東福寺, Gion 祇園 Part 7 : Day 7 and 8 – Road Trip, Exploring Takayama 高山 and Epic Lunch at Turuturutei [...]
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