There’s been many adventures when the end of the path is not as eventful as getting there. Our experiences of Kyoto are full of such little stories. This is just one of them.
I’ve always wanted to go to Japan and, as mentioned before in this blog, I was lucky enough to live the dream. First time we went with a couple of our friends, our first trip abroad together. We have very different tastes on what we want to experience but at this point, we were still in agreement on what we would see. The Fushimi Inari was on the list of things to do, for all of us.
This is a place that needs no introductions. It is well photographed and it is easy to photograph. It always looks amazing. We decided to go all the way up, following the travel guide suggestions.
There were many people going up, entire families, corporate teams, tourists like us. It was incredibly warm for late March, especially for us, straight off the Scottish Winter. A few days before, while in Osaka, we had managed to get sunburn…
Soon the amazing experience of all the torii and their setting, this luxuriant green woods all around us, was not enough to quench the thirst or rest our already tired legs.
But after almost 1 hour going up, you feel you have to continue, that it would be silly to turn back now and not see how it is, in the end. At the Yotsutsuji intersection, the view of Kyoto was interesting, but once you see Osaka from above, this felt a bit disappointing…
With less torii along the way, and heavier legs the Fushimi Inari is proving to be a challenge. Nearly giving up, we saw this old lady going up at an incredible pace, considering how high we already were. There were younger people going just as fast, but that lady did in fact put us to shame. Having not really read much about the shrine, only that it looks amazing, we didn’t really know what we would find at the summit. There was a lot of speculation among us, but…
we didn’t expect this. For me, it was an experience like no other. I couldn’t stop going around it, not knowing its meaning but being nevertheless fascinated. It was also the point when I realised our group was looking for very different memories to take back home but none of us would want one when we were humiliated by an old lady with the hability to climb mountains…
Posted for Amanda’s Friendly Friday Blogging Challenge
I can relate. I made the same observation in Japan where people seemed to be in much better shape. We had a guide who took us to several shrines, every one of which was on a mountain. While I was struggling to stay upright, she’d be way ahead waiting impatiently for me to catch up. After the upteenth shrine I said ‘No more.” I didn’t want to see another shrine. She had to change the agenda. And so we went to see a castle … which stood on top of a hill.
Great photos Sofia. Congratulations for going all the way up to the top. I didn’t. Thanks for showing me what I missed 🙂
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I agree. I never saw a person that could be labelled obese anywhere in Japan. They eat small portions compared to the western diets. And less meat perhaps helps as well.
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Very true. I think we notice it more because we can compare to people in our own countries.
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That made me smile!
I’m too stubborn to give up and that’s not necessarily a good thing. It was in this case 🙂
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Wonderful story
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Thank you!
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Walking around shrines is a great way to see the sights and exercise, although this one seems a bit more like an endurance test! I opted to see the bamboo grove instead. The photos of the summit of Fushimi inari are impressive, Sofia. Perfect for the theme.
From above, Japanese cities are so densely populated!
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It definitely felt like it!
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