All over Japan near shrines you can find what are called torii gates, which are usually either red and made of wood, or stone. He's an example of one. Oh yeah, I saw that one up close when I was there too, but it's a pretty extreme example as usually they aren't that gigantic. Usually you only see one gate by itself, but that wasn't the case on my last day to Kyoto. The last place I saw at Kyoto is a pretty famous place. Perhaps people have seen pictures of it before? Fushimi Inari is a shrine built up a mountain, and the distinguishing feature is just how many of those gates it has.
Now I didn't get to climb up any other mountain during my time in Japan. Originally I wanted to go climb Fuji but I realized that I didn't have the hiking gear or a nice coat that would make it safe. Fushimi Inari on the other hand doesn't need any special gear, just a couple hours of your time and a camera to take great pictures of the spot.
I wanted to climb this mountain early on during our visits to Kyoto, but we weren't really in good shape for that most of the time. All of the walking that kyoto required left david in a state where climbing wasn't an option. But I didn't fare any better, as I ended up with blood-filled blisters on my feet from walking, which would make the climb painful and slow. But I think there was one day where we really didn't see very much so that we could rest instead. After that, we took off for the mountain.
The main thing to see there, I think, is the thousands of gates. Because of that, instead of reading my description of the place its probably best to take a look at the pictures and videos I took. I took a video of almost all the climb up to show the sheer amount of gates on this mountain, and it definitely is in contrast to a normal shrine. With as many gates as there were, parts of the trail seem less like a collection of gates and more like a tunnel. As for the reason there are so many gates - people are able to pay to get a gate put up in their name, and you can see the owners names written on each. I think the gates are pretty expensive though, up in the thousands of dollars. However apparently for those who can't afford that, there are mini gates that are about the size of someone's hand or head. At the very top of the mountain I saw hundreds of these mini gates.
There wasn't only one path up the mountain however. There were paths going out from the main one we took, and on these paths there were spots that looked significant, but I really had no idea what they were. Some locations made me think they were graves or mini shrines to minor gods. Other locations looked to be donation boxes and prayer areas. I took a picture of most of the interesting looking spots on the mountain but I can't really say much about what they were.
The mountain wasn't a very steep climb most of the time, but it varied and I was pretty tired on the way up so it was slow going. I remember that halfway up the mountain there was an area with a few buildings. Shops and surprisingly even homes. I'd hate to be someone that had to supply the shops, as it would mean taking an hour or so walk up a mountain as far as I know.
On my way back down, because I was slow climbing, it was getting dark. I ended up getting separated from david but I didn't think it was a problem because all I had to do was go down to get to the bottom of the mountain, or so I thought. Turns out there were forks in some of the paths, and I took the one that went downward partially because it seemed like the best way to get down, and also because I saw a cat and followed it to take pictures. I ended up at a dead end 10 minutes later with nobody in sight, so that was bad but I figured I could just call david up on the cell phone to tell him I would take a while to catch up. While backtracking to the fork I previously saw, I came across a lady outside of what must have been her home (imagine living on this mountain!) and she told me to go on the path that went upward, as it did eventually go down, and that's the path I wanted. Oh well. I think the cat that I saw was hers, too. She had a few cats around her house.
At the halfway point with a resting area and shops, I got to take some pictures of the city from above. A nice night view, but I don't think the pictures came out as good as what I saw in person. At any rate, it's better to see the mountain than to explain it in words, so go take a look at the videos I took!
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