Fushimi Inari... or Fushimi Ineveragain.

Ever seen the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha?" That is one of my favorite movies. The book is one of my favorite books. Well in the movie there is a scene where Chiyo, (Sayuri,) runs through a tunnel of Torii gates and offers thanks to her gods by throwing money given to her by "the Chairmen" into well of offerings and ringing a bell to send her prayers heavenward. I think that this scene is just gorgeous. Ever since I learned that we would be moving to Japan I have wanted see this tunnel of Torii gates. I researched it and learned that the place is called Fuishimi Inari and it is a shrine located on the side of a mountain with literally thousands of torii gates. I was thrilled to see it when we began planning our trip to Kyoto!
Kitsune (or fox) statues are everywhere at Fushimi Inari. I guess they are always linked to Inari shrines. They're pretty mean looking... huh?


So everything started off ok. We hiked, we saw, we hiked some more.
Then it began to dawn on us that this hike would never end. We would forever climb and climb and sweat and ache and never get anywhere. The mosquitoes became unbearable and the sticky humidity drenched us before we were even halfway up the mountain according to the convoluted maps we came across.
Bless our hearts we sure did try to make it all the way, but really people... how many torii gates can you look at before they all start to look the same... because they ARE the same. It was tortuous and not very rewarding to continue climbing and climbing upward and never feel like you were getting anywhere...
Not only were we not getting anywhere, but the entire place was sort of crumbling. Many torii gates were in shambles or had faded from rich bright vermillion, to pinkish white or grey. They were moldy and bug infested.

Much needed touch-ups. I felt like the place was falling apart! A lot of the wood was rotting and many of the gates were entirely or partially removed.
Snacks for the weary climber. I found out later that I wasn't supposed to take pictures of the snack stands.... oops!

The view was ... ALMOST worth it. This was only halfway up too. Maybe it would have been even better at the very top... but we didn't make it. We most definitely gave up.



And.... we're calling it quits... Worth seeing? Maybe, maybe note. Worth seeing again? HECK NO!!