The warm up: Fushimi Inari shrine.
This place is breath-taking. Probably more so without the tourist hoards, but I won't complain as we joined right in.
Made up of thousands of bright vermillion Torii gates, the entire shinto shine appears to be an unending winding path - a 3 three hour walk up a mountain and back. We only did part, but may return to do the rest.
The Inari, to whom the shrine is dedicated, is the protector of grains,(rice - which makes Sake!) This is said to mean wealth and rich people and business officials often take note of this and come to pay their respects still, and sometimes make large donations to have their names inscribed on the torii gates.
If you are wondering, the statues in the above slideshow are actually foxes, kitsune, the messengers of Inari.
We went a little way off the beaten track, well about 50 meters away form the crowd shuffle through the torii gates, to find even more red shrines, they are quite intricate inside!
We followed this up with a lovely little temple, very different in style.
One of the 5 great Zen Temples of Japan. Tofukuji Temple.
I think my photography skills might be improving- These Gates are 22m high!
We found this: A stone well of water, with bamboo pipes laid across it and several bamboo cups on poles... Unsure what it is for as yet!
The next journey was quite a long one! On the way we saw a few shops selling Kimono (beautiful!)
And we nipped into a cafe for some pancakes, where we met Monte :)
Whew, TBC....