I awoke this day after sleeping on the floor feeling even sicker than the day before. But as we had our last half day in Kyoto, I had no choice than to muster all my energy and go sightseeing. I still had a fever and chills accompanied by swollen glands and a very painful throat. I dreamed of being at home in my comfy king size bed dosed up on painkillers.
After checking out of our ryokan, we went to Kyoto station to put our luggage in lockers for the day. Unfortunately, many others had the same idea, so we had to hire four little lockers to fit all our junk in as all the large lockers were taken.
After breakfast at Lotteria, we caught the JR Nara line to Inari station in search of the famous Inari shrine, Upon exiting the station, the shrine is directly across the road.
This shrine is a popular place for tourists, but it is also a working shrine.
The shrine is dedicated to the gods of rice and sake. There are many fox statues which are considered the messenger of Inari.
The above area was used to perform a Shinto ceremony for a family with young children, similar to a baptism I guess. Photos were not allowed of the actual ceremony which involved 3 priest (2 were women) alot of singing and chanting and music played on traditional Japanese instruments (not sure what they are called)
There are actually five shrine erected up a mountain which covers 4 kms.
As I felt so ill, we only walked a short way along, but it basically looks the same the whole way.
A grave stone perhaps?
A very awsome sight which makes for some fantastic photo opportunities.
I highly recommend this shrine. The sheer volume of tori gates will astound you.
