Fushimi Inari

I went to Fushimi Inari this weekend with Cassidy and her friend (Kelly, I think). It was about 4 hours of walking up and down a freaking mountain. BUT it was very enjoyable nonetheless. I have a jillion photos on facebook (okay more like 120), because there were tiny shrines EVERYWHERE. Fushimi Inari was HUGE. Very orange and green. (torii and bamboo, respectively, of course.)

So, Inari is the fox god of Japan, and of course, it is Shinto. If you see those orange gates (torii)? It's Shinto. The orange is meant to scare away demons, if I remember right. And going through the gates is meant to purify. Shinto has a lot to do with purification. I'm learning a lot about it right now in class. Shinto isn't a typical religion, like say, Christianity. There is no moral code or written "law" or dogma. It's very polytheistic, too. And probably one of the few (maybe only?) religions that still in the modern world will worship animals. (Like Inari).

The reason Fushimi Inari is so huge is because what people pray to Inari for has changed over the centuries. Inari used to be, like so many other gods, prayed to for fertility-- now Inari is seen as the god to pray to for good fortune in business. So all those orange torii? They were all paid by businesses, and have inscriptions on the back of them of the company name, and I believe, the president and such. They're also REALLY expensive, as in 1000s of dollars. You can get little torii for around $50 if you want and have it painted and placed somewhere too, though.

It kind of takes away a little of the mystery to the gates, but it's still amazing to see the MASSIVE number of gates there.

It's also the place where in the Memoirs of a Geisha movie that Sayuri ran through all those torii. There's a spot near the entrance where there are two paths of torii, and they are all the same height. It was definitely there that they filmed it. (Plus, it's close to the entrance, and you don't have to hike up the whole mountain to get to it).

The day before, Cassidy and I had explored by her house at what we call the "creepy shrine", since it's really overgrown. It wasn't actually that creepy, but there wasn't anyone there, so that was a little eerie.

I've also decided that I need to go and travel somewhere every weekend otherwise I will definitely feel unfufilled. We might go to Asuka this weekend. We shall see...