Day trip from Kyoto to Fushimi Inari Shrine and Nara. Rugby World Cup, 2019 Japan

Even if you haven’t been to Japan I am sure you will have seen photos of the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

Like Santorini is in Greece, this is Japans poster girl.With the image used on travel brochures and guide books.
As we planned to have a few days out from Kyoto I got a Kansai Area Pass ticket from the JR desk at the station; again this is only available to foreign visitors.

https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/pass/kansai

We got an early train to Inari station, this is the Sake area of Kyoto and the shrine is dedicated to Inari, the god of rice and sake.

Fushimi Inari Map of the route to the summit 

The entrance area was reasonably busy, but we headed up the 4km path to the summit of the mountain. Passing under the more than 10,000 bright red gates that make the path into a red tunnel. 

Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

The gates are donated by companies to ensure success in their business, and have inscriptions on them.

Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

 But every now and then there is a gap in the gates and there are small shrines, with lots of dog statues; I was told later that they are Foxes. 

Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

And the slopes of the mountain are covered in trees so it feels like a forest. It was a lovely climb and the higher we got the less people we encountered.

The path was really busy as we came back down, and I was glad we had made the effort and got up to the summit early; the shrine is open 24 hours a day.

At the top Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Steep at times, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Back at the station, it was packed with Rugby fans, I called into the 7/11 and got a tuna filled rice sandwich, I loved them and they had become my go to lunch meal. 

We got the train to Nara.

From Nara main station it was an easy walk to Nara Park it was well signposted with the signs in English.  

Nara 

After the five story pagoda and Kofuku-ji Temple we went into the Deer park. 

You can buy crackers for the Deer and get them to Bow to you in return for the cracker. Whilst quite ‘tame’ some of the Deer were also aggressive and I had a tug of war with one as it tried, and succeeded, to get my map from me!

Nara Deer 

They get close

eating my map, Nara deer 

Nara Deer Warning 

The main attraction was the magnificent Todai-ji temple with its Great Buddha sitting on a Lotus leaf throne.

Nara 

There were many Japanese school children here and part of their project was to find foreign visitors and ask them a set of questions in English. We did many sessions with the delightful children and received Origami Cranes made by the children in return.

One of the pillars at the back of the temple has a hole in it and many children were going through it for good luck. One Adult who had decided to have a go really didn’t fit!!

We had a fabulous day in Fushimi- Inari and Nara, and had packed a lot in in a short space of time, but we were really glad did.

That night we just went to a local supermarket and got takeout food to eat. It was delicious- nicer than it looks.

This was Wednesday 9^th October 2019, the weather was perfect, but watching the weather forecast we were aware that a Super Typhoon called Hagibis was gaining strength in the Pacific and we watched the weather forecast with interest.