One more shrine and the Daimonji Festival

Today was another scorcher, hot hot hot! I hear that it has been hot back home, too, so I won't go on and on about it. We had a slow morning but eventually we pushed ourselves out the door and onto the bikes for a visit to the Fushimi Inari shrine. We had seen pictures of this place and it looked and sounded really interesting. It was a hot day for biking along the river!



All the tourist guides say to get to Fushimi Inari on the train. We have been trying to ride bikes and conserve money so we were a bit conflicted about how to go because it looks pretty far on the map. In the end we decided to ride together part of the way, then split up so Jana and Aleeza could take the train while Benna and I rode the rest of the way. It went well, Benna and I had a fun adventure getting kind of lost but eventually making our way along a canal where we had to follow a really narrow path and duck under some low bridges. We arrived before them even though we rode (and got lost) and they took the train!

Anyway - The lower part of the shrine was beautiful but there were renovations going on so several of the buildings were shrouded with scaffolding.



The temple honors a god of rice, and the messenger of this god is a fox, so there are statues of foxes all around.



But the main feature of this shrine are the hundreds and hundreds of Tori gates.



We had read about the long paths lined with gates, but seeing them in person was overwhelming. The paths were lined almost continuously with these gates.



Every ten minutes or so there would be a set of shrine buildings, in some cases a pond or waterfall. We hiked for maybe a kilometer before turning around, but the paths went on for more than four kilometers to the top of the mountain!



Tonight is a special night in Kyoto. As part of the end of "OBON" a series of bonfires are lit on the sides of some of the mountains surrounding the city. The tradition is very old, and it is cool to note that several old Kyoto families organize the bonfires in a tradition that has been passed down through the generations. When I came here in 1975 I hiked up the mountain and saw the fireplaces, and I remember thinking that one day I'd like to see the bonfires in person. That day was today!

Unfortunately, distant bonfires don't photograph really well! But here are some pictures from tonight. We went up on the roof of the building along with most of the neighbors. All around on the streets people gathered to look up at the hills.



Traffic came to a standstill as the first fires appeared promptly at 8pm. From east to west, every ten minutes more mountainsides lit up in different shapes. It was cool!



The past few days have been hot and long, and our nerves have started to wear thin. Aleeza and Benna were both in foul moods tonight. Aleeza managed to pretend to be smiling long enough for me to take this sweet picture.