Kyoto Daytripping: Fushimi Inari

A while ago I posted a blog about one of the two spots in the Kyoto area that impressed me the most: Arashiyama. This post is about the second of those favourite spots, Fushimi Inari Shrine. Even if you've never heard of it, you'll probably recognise it immediately: the thousands of red torii gates are undoubtedly some of the most photogenic material you'll find in Kyoto, if not the whole of Japan. This impressive Shinto shrine is located in southern Kyoto, and is easily accessed from Kyoto JR station which is just a few stops away. Fushimi is the location of the shrine, and Inari is the god to which it is dedicated, the god of rice.

At the beginning of the shrine complex are a couple of large entrance gates, as well as the main shrine building, both of which share the distinctive vermillion hue of the famous torii gates. 

Behind the main shrine building is where the torii trail up the forested mountain begins. The lower parts of the mountain were incredibly busy with tourists when I visited. I was disappointed at how crowded it was and wondered how on earth various friends of mine, who had visited previously, managed to get great photos of just themselves against the stunning backdrop of the red torii. However, as soon as you start to work your way up the mountain, it gets much, much quieter, and at many points we were quite alone and could enjoy the impressive sights in all their glory, unmarred by crowds. I think a lot of people don't bother hiking up and just stay at the bottom for a few token photos before getting back on their coach and being driven to their next destination. 

The reason why there are so many red gates of varying sizes, is because each one has been bought as a donation to the shrine by either an individual or a business, in the hope of ensuring success and happiness. The bigger the torii, the greater the donation! The writing on the gates marks the name of the donor and the date of the donation. Some of the torii were quite old, with much of the brightness of the paint having faded and splits beginning to appear in the wood. Others were so shiny and bold in colour that they may well have been put up the day before I visited. Whether new or old, together the collection of torii certainly make an impressive sight, especially against the green backdrop of the forest. As the torii bend around a corner, they sometimes give the illusion of going on forever.

There are plenty of other things to capture the imagination along the hiking route, in addition to walking through the many torii gates. There are lots of smaller shrines at intervals along the trail. One of the recurring motifs is that of the fox, as these animals are associated with the god Inari. We even stumbled across a little bamboo grove, this one with far fewer visitors than the famous one at Arashiyama.

Roughly halfway between the starting point of the trail and the mountain summit, you reach a fantastic look out point where you can stop and catch your breath whilst enjoying a bird's eye view of Kyoto.

The whole hike to the summit and back is around 2 1/2 miles, with lots of steps and steep gradients, so it's a good idea to wear comfortable shoes and take some water with you, especially if it is a hot day. If you have forgotten your own refreshments, there are spots on the trail where you can stop for a drink or buy one to-go (and of course there are a scattering of vending machines, as is to be expected in Japan). 

On the way back down from the summit we stopped at one of the small restaurants and ate udon on a tatami mat floor, which was served by an old lady who looked like she was pushing 90 years old. She still had it going on in the kitchen though.

That was just enough fuel to get us back down to the bottom of the mountain. I think that is more or less all I can show and tell about my visit to Fushimi Inari. But you really have to go yourself to experience the magic of it.

I will write one more blog about a few attractions that I visited when in central Kyoto. Although I didn't enjoy the centre of the city as much as Arashiyama and Fushimi Inari, it still has plenty of museums (I particularly loved the new railway museum), temples, a wonderful market, and other sights to keep anyone entertained for a day or two.

Osaka Sights: Day & Night

I realised that, despite having posted about a few things around Osaka, such as Universal Studios, the suburb of Sakai, and the Taishi Shotoe festival of lights, I hadn't actually posted anything about Osaka city itself yet. Although I spent far more time exploring other parts of the Kansai region during my stay in Osaka, I think it's worth mentioning a handful of things I visited in central Osaka. Although I didn't do all of these things in one day, this could easily be a one-day itinerary for a day and evening in the city.

Osaka Castle
Every Japanese city worth its salt has a castle and Osaka is no exception. Having said that, I think Osaka's is certainly one of the best, boasting not only a huge moat and extensive grounds with gates, turrets, and huge stone walls, but also an excellent and informative museum within the castle itself, and a viewing platform on the top floor, which affords views of the urban metropolis that is been built up around the castle.

The moat separated the castle from its urban surroundings

The castle boasts impressive gold ornamentation

Although the current castle is a 20th century reconstruction, the origins of the castle lie in the 16th century, and the museum inside the castle is dedicated to this history. The museum contains artefacts relating to the museum's history, ranging from armour to folding screens illustrating battles that surrounded the castle.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi began construction of the castle in 1583, on the former grounds of a large temple called Ishiyama Honganji. Much of the museum is dedicated to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's era, and a whole floor is dedicated to the Summer War of 1615 during which the castle fell into the hands of the Tokugawa shogunate. The exhibition area uses the folding screen as a starting point to tell the story, explaining certain sections of the screen in more detail with blown-up versions of the images and figurines.

The top floor of the castle offers a 360 degree view around the castle, including its surrounding grounds and the modern high rise buildings that lay beyond.

If you are visiting the castle and its grounds I would leave at least 2 hours to do so. You could even spend longer there if it's a nice day (as I'm sure you can tell from the photos, it wasn't when I went!) and have lunch in the grounds. There are various stalls selling food and snacks such as takoyaki. The castle grounds are particularly popular during cherry blossom season, when the park is filled with the attractive pink flowers.

Osaka Museum of History
The museum is a stone's throw away from the castle, and you can buy a combination ticket if you are visiting both on the same day, which will save you a few yen.

Osaka Museum of History as seen from Osaka Castle Park

As I've found with many museums in Japan, the route of the permanent exhibition starts from the top floor and works its way down. The top floor is dedicated to the Naniwa Palace, a palace that was built in Osaka during the city's early history. It acted as the country's seat of government before capitals were later established in Nara and Kyoto. There is a reconstruction of the interior of the palace on the top floor of the museum, and you can also see the original site of the palace from the museum's huge glass windows, which offer views across the city from various floors.

Replicas of the palace's vermillion pillars

Mannequins in period court dress

The site of the palace as viewed from the museum

Each floor of the museum works its way towards the present chronologically, via the Edo period to the modern period. During the Edo period Osaka became one of the largest cities in Japan: it was a busy port city and also developed a culture of Kabuki and Bunraku (puppet theatre) theatres. Today Japan's National Bunraku Theatre is located in Osaka, in the Dotonburi area, which I will mention again later in this post.

Osaka was a major port town in the Edo period

The final floor dedicated to the city's history allows you to walk through Osaka in the modern era, recreated using slightly creepy looking white plaster mannequins.

This is a pretty good museum with enough English information to learn a good deal about the rich history of one of Japan's oldest and largest cities. It is definitely worth a visit to explore Osaka's past, which isn't immediately obvious from its current appearance as a hectic urban metropolis. It's a fairly new museum (opening in 2003) and seemed to be popular with both tourists and locals alike.

Dotonburi
Dotonburi is a popular tourist street which runs parallel to the canal of the same name, and is a great spot to watch the city go from day to night, as the street comes alive with hundreds of neon signs. The area is, as I mentioned earlier, the historical centre of Osaka's theatre culture, and still has theatres today. Although I didn't visit a theatre in the area, I did visit the Kamigata Ukiyo-e Museum. Ukiyo-e broadly speaking are wood block prints produced during the Edo period, and those produced in Osaka were generally of Kabuki actors. I love ukiyoe so the museum for me was a must-see, but I was slightly disappointed at how small it was and how limited the English explanations were. So perhaps this is one for those with a particular interest in these kinds of prints. I think next time I visit the Dotonburi area I will go to the Konamon Museum instead which is dedicated to Osaka's gastronomic history as an area famous for okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) and takoyaki (octopus balls). The museum is free, looks like fun and has a giant octopus on the front so I simply can't imagine it being disappointing!

The Dotonburi street itself is chock-a-block with food vendors, selling all the things you'd expect in Osaka, including okonomyaki, takoyaki, ramen and even the deadly pufferfish, 'fugu' if you dare. You can snack on different specialities from various vendors as you walk along the street, or you can have a sit-down meal if you prefer.

Dotonbori

The restaurant signs are over-the-top!

Karaoke, Okonomyaki

The view of Dotonburi canal

Neon signs above the night-time crowds... like Piccadilly circus but on a much larger scale!

Feeling thirsty?

I really enjoyed walking through this area on a couple of evenings, but it also made me realise how glad I was not to have stayed in central Osaka for the month I was there. I don't enjoy walking out the door into throngs of tourists and commuters every day, and this part of town always seems to be busy and certainly never sleeps!

Smoke House Ape
Osaka, as you would expect from a big city, has plenty of choice in terms of places to drink. I don't go to bars that often, but when I do, I do enjoy going to a place that takes pride in the drink and food it offers, and has an ambience that's a bit more interesting than one created by music and sofas that could just as easily be found in your local generic coffee shop chain. Craft beer pub Smoke House Ape definitely offers something more and is ideal for the more curious drinker.

Found on the first floor of a building opposite JR Namba station, this is a small but perfectly shaped bar which also boasts a balcony: great for people-watching with a beer on a fine evening. As the name suggests, the food from the kitchen is smoked in-house. Sadly as I came here straight after dinner I didn't try the food! But I would love to come back here the next time I'm in Osaka and arrive with a hungry belly.

The beer selection is impressive and not only covers local brews from the Kansai region and from around Japan, but also from around the world (the selection varies regularly). Whether you want to go for a lager, ale, porter or IPA, there'll be something interesting on the menu. The evening I went I had a super-local IPA from Minoh Beer, Osaka, and a gose-style beer from the Ushitaru Brewery / Kyoto Brewing Co. The latter was quite sour and fruity and not like anything I'd had before. The beer shown below is actually Fist City Chicago Pale Ale, which wasn't my drink but the glass was more attractive than mine so of course I had to take a photo!

A corner of the bar's balcony

Bottoms up!

There really is a lot to explore in Osaka. The city certainly has its own character and is distinct from other Japanese cities such as Kyoto and Tokyo. I hope to spend a few more days in Osaka before I finally leave Japan next year.

Have you ever been to Osaka? What other sights should I visit?

Kyoto Daytripping: Arashiyama

Whilst staying in Osaka in April/May this year, I visited Kyoto on a number of occasions. One of the main reasons I chose Osaka as my base was its proximity to Kyoto and other locations in the Kansai region. Even though I enjoyed my trips to Kyoto, and certainly preferred it to Osaka (in terms of appearance and atmosphere), it still didn't quite live up to expectations, given its reputation as a must-visit destination in Japan (this is despite being awe-struck by two geisha I spotted one night in the historic geisha district of Gion - surely the quintessential experience for the tourist in Japan). Maybe it's because most of the times I visited Kyoto I had the misfortune of torrential rain so spent a lot of time in museums rather than wandering the streets or parks. Or perhaps it's because I'd reached temple/shrine saturation point by the time I visited those located in Kyoto. Either way, my two highlights of the Kyoto area are actually located outside the city itself: Arashiyama and Fushimi Inari (which I will write about in another post). Both of these places are in my opinion much more impressive than anything I saw in the city. If you ever spend a short stay in Kyoto, I would suggest making a day trip to one or both of these places rather than focussing solely on the attractions in the city itself.

Arashiyama is located in the western outskirts of Kyoto. If you take the Hankyu line to Arashiyama like I did, the first thing you do once exiting the train station is walk across Togetsukyu bridge which crosses the Katsura river. The river itself is covered in pleasure boats and is a good location to spot local wildlife.

Thickly forested riverside with pleasure boats

Cormorants enjoying a day of fishing on the Katsura river

The river as seen from a observation point near the bamboo grove

Once you cross the bridge, you are confronted by what looks like an extremely touristy area with masses of souvenir shops and tourists disembarking from coaches in their hundreds. Luckily, once you move away from this central area, the attractions tend to be less busy. The one exception to this is the bamboo grove, which unfortunately was horrendously busy, as I suppose is to be expected given it is the most famous attraction of the area. This was a real shame, as it seemed like a magical place, but you couldn't truly get a sense of this with the number of people walking through it. I was also slightly disappointed that there was only one designated path through the bamboo grove, and you could not simply wander through it freely.

Walking through the narrow path of the bamboo grove was one point at which I got extremely frustrated with people spending what felt like hours taking photos of themselves, with or without selfie sticks. It's quite a narrow path through the grove, so if there is a group doing this you not only can't pass but it takes up your entire view of the grove, which is somewhat distracting to say the least. I know I'm as guilty of taking photos as the next person, but sometimes I wish people would spend more time simply enjoying their surroundings rather than taking photos of themselves in said surroundings. I completely understand the need to record experiences for posterity, but not when it's at the detriment of enjoying the here and now. And that's the end of my selfie rant.

Bamboo Grove: vertical view

Bamboo Grove: horizontal view

After battling our way through the tourists at the bamboo grove, we went to a much more tranquil location: Okochi Sanso Villa. This is the former villa of samurai actor Denjiro Okochi, who carefully worked on the design of the gardens for 30 years. Since his death in 1962 the gardens have been open to the public. The entry fee is 1,000 JPY which includes green tea and a biscuit in the teahouse. Not only are the grounds themselves imprressive, but also afford stunning views of Kyoto as it sits on a hill. I also found the journey through the garden very interesting and different to any other Japanese garden I had visited (and I have visited quite a few now!). The paths between different locations within the grounds were frequently built up with foliage so that you were walking through 'tunnels', from which you could not see the overall plan of the garden, meaning that when you appeared in the next location it was all the more surprising and impressive. It also meant that the contrast between the 'closed' passages and the great open viewpoints of the city was even more breathtaking.

Restorative matcha and red bean biscuit in the teahouse

Chumon (middle gate)

Daijo Kaku (main building)

Jibutsudo (small temple)

After enjoying a quick lunch back down by the river, we visited Monkey Park Iwatayama. I was initially sceptical about this, partly because I expected it to be a quasi-zoo (and I'm not a huge fan of zoos), and partly because I'd stumbled across a 'monkey park' in a public park in Sakai the previous week which had been full of pretty mangy and unhappy looking monkeys. However, my preconceptions of Monkey Park Iwatayama turned out to be completely wrong, happily. The park is really just an area where the wild monkeys (Japanese macaques) that live in the mountains congregate because they are offered food. 

After buying your entry ticket to the park, a steep hike up the mountain for 20 minutes or so is rewarded by being able to get close to these monkeys in their (near-enough) natural environment. It happened to be the right time of year for baby monkeys to be born, which massively added to the cuteness factor.

Deep in thought

Family portrait

I'd prefer a hot bath

Peek-a-boo

Just having a snack

But mummy I want to play

The monkeys and the turtle dove

If you visit the monkey park, definitely stick around for feeding time. The park 'ranger' has a bucket full of food from which he throws handfuls out for the monkeys, and they get so overexcited that they almost forget that they're wild (I had a couple of monkeys nearly run right into me in their haste to get to the tasty snacks). The monkeys are apparently omnivorous, and in the park they are fed things such as soybeans, chestnuts, peanuts, bananas, and even Japanese persimmons. No wonder they like to gather here from all over the mountain. Oohing and aahing over the baby monkeys was a great way to end the day in Arashiyama, and the sun even decided to come out for the first time all day.

If I went back to Arashiyama, I would love to spend more time simply hiking in the mountains. I spotted a couple of temples in forested areas in the mountains and it would be great to hike around there and discover some of the less well-trodden paths. As has been the trend for me so far in Japan, I've enjoyed the beautiful parts of the countryside more than the urban centres.

Have you ever been to an animal park?