Kyoto, touristic mega town! And this shrine draws even more people. While I work on my blog admin, I realised that I haven’t written anything about Kyoto besides my maiko experience. This place is so well covered anyways. How about I just talk about the dirty stuff.
Do not be fooled by those beautiful epic spacious, peaceful photos. The movie Memoir of Geisha has immortalised this place. The reality is that there are literately 1000 people next to you at any given time attempting to replicate the same shot. It is anything but tranquil.
The infamous endless rows of Tori, well, is actually expensive marketing / prayers from businesses. Local individuals or businesses pay for these tori. The prices are CRAZY. A tiny tori (like a desk top size) starts at JPY 175,000. These large ones? JPY708,000 and upwards. Prices varies depending on the positions. The ones close to the temple or the entrance? Those are priced well beyond JPY 1,000,000. They have a price list on display. You just need to keep your eyes open to spot this lucrative board 😉
Tips:
- If you have arachnophobia, try not to look up or between the tori.
- Besides people, there’s TONS of mosquitoes okay. Unless you visit when it is snowing, spray yourself with industrial strength mosquito repellent. Those mosquito spray from the local Japanese convenient store just won’t cut it.
- Do not visit on 1st January. Tons of locals and foreigners, even more crazy than normal. If you do want to see this crowd, visit at your own risk.
- There’re people everywhere. The higher up you go, the less people.
- Be prepared to wait for your clean shot. I do mean WAIT.
- Visit it when it is about to close to avoid the crowds 😉
Where was I?
Fushimi Inari-taisha (Shrine), Kyoto
伏見稲荷大社
Is Fushimi Inari Taisha worth a visit? If it is your first time in Japan, it is worth the stress. Otherwise, I feel that it is too crowded to be enjoyable.
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Photos are from several trips. I do regret not taking the 1000 people shot though. Those photos are way more interesting.
54 Comments
That’s pretty cool. An enjoyable read instead. Japan has its own beauty. Awesome!!
Thank you for dropping by, Shreya. Glad that you’ve enjoyed the post 😀
Interesting and enjoyable read! 🙂
Thank you 😉 Glad that you enjoyed that
Japan makes everyone an epic photographer 😀 I love living in Japan.
It is so true. There’s so much beautiful things in Japan – landscape, matsuri, tech, fashion and food!!!
I’ve done Fushimi Inari a couple of times, but nothing beats the first visit. Swung by at dusk – fewer people about, and even fewer the higher I went up. The darkness gradually deepened as I followed the trail of torii up the hillside, and it got to the point where there was absolutely no-one else – just me, the shadows, the rustling of leaves in the wind and the mysterious sounds of the forest on either side. In due course, I was overcome by such fear and dread that I abandoned the attempt and hastened back down to the shrine.
Creepy stuff. I might try an evening visit again at some point – but I’ll need to make sure there’s someone else with me (and that I’ve got a torch within easy reach)!
Cheers.
That and a lot of mosquito repellent 😂😉 have a fab weekend
Thank you. I’ll go there soon! 🙂
😃😘thank you for dropping by. Enjoy your coming trip
You are so right about this place. It was just one big stress and frustration. Beautiful but also disappointing. Next time I’m going to go early – climb right to the top – and hopefully dodge the crowds for just a little bit of the time.
😂absolutely, you do that
. Better luck next time 😆😉
A friend of mine visited Fushimi Inari Shrine at night to witness the sunrise from there… Sure, you’ll have to get up really, REALLY early, but on the plus side: Noone else around and you can enjoy the shrine having some different kind of atmoshere (the eerie setting at night must be something else)
O, absolutely! Wow, well done to your friend! It’s difficult to race against the mob.
Night time is gorgeous and really eerie. Somehow those stones looked alive?
Wow, you’re so lucky to have visited this place. I have long been dreaming to go here, I just don’t have enough travel funds for now, but I’ll surely save for this. Thank you so much for sharing some tips and for touring me around even by just reading your blog post. As always, you own an amazing photos.
Thank you, Lai. Happy to share. Your Philippines island hopping is a lot more exotic than this. 😃
It’s so pretty!!!????✨❤️????
Thank you for dropping by, Ava ????
Your welcome! I really love you blog!????
Aw, that’s so sweet. Thank you ????????
Your welcome!
Oh my!! I want to go there!!!!
Agree with the comment about visiting some of the most popular places – if you visit them anyway- late in the day or very early morning. We go to experience the Nagano snow monkeys with just two other visitors. That made it even more impressive.
Ja, those snow monkeys are amazing! Loved that place and their ‘live TV show’ wahaha ????
Good posts, beautiful blog.
Congratulations.
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Thank you for dropping by, Ahmed. Best of luck with your digital painting venture.
Thank you & you’re welcome, my friend ???? ????
Arghgh! Just reading the word mosquito and I feel like scratching! Following you now on google+!
I went there! 😛 It wasn’t too bad when we went – lots of people but not overcrowded.
I was mainly surprised how commercial this temple was…
Exactly!! There’s nothing spiritual at all~~ It’s like walking throw pillows of money.
Great that you are honest about this! I had a similar experience at temples in Bali – all the pictures you see on blogs and IG are so picture perfect but when you are there the sights are packed with people in reality!
Thank you for that 😀 Well, I’m not going for advertising *LOL* I guess picture perfect isn’t necessary. Sometimes I feel let down or underwhelmed by the actual place after so many people hyped it up and make crazy engineered photos.
totally agree, that’s also how I feel when I arrive some places! honest bloggers unite :-p
haha I like that, ‘honest bloggers unite’ 😀
Great tips and I agree with everything you said! The Tori was a good experience, but really hard to get a decent photo between without people getting in the way. Conversely, as a result of so many people taking photos, it is a slow walk.
We gave up after about 30 minutes.
The pace is one of the difficulty too haha It does test one’s patience 😛
I thought this was a fun way to talk about a place so many have been to. I like it there not for the gates but for the view and the quiet further up! I actually got lost on the mountain my first time there.
Excellent advice. It’s nice too see someone talk about the dirty side of the popular Japanese sights. You forgot one: if you go in the fall when the gingko nuts (?) are on the ground and getting squashed, it really stinks.
Glad that you liked it ???? I was a lottle nervous.
You’re totally right about the nuts, I need to add that. I have no idea what nuts they are. I only recall them being pungent. Thank you for the advise.
Nah, don’t be nervous about telling it like it is. You can recognize the dirty side of something while still seeing the beauty in it. These places get glamourized, but they’re also full of people, spiders, and stinky nuts. It’s good to keep your expectations realistic. I’ve been twice so far, but got bored halfway up (it’s long), so I want to go again and make it to the top.
I agree. After a while, it felt like I was just running up the stairs.
Super helpful. Thank you for your honesty!
Thank you ???? I am so glad
Wonderful images and story and tips Joyce. I never got to Fushimi Inari Taisha but always planned to “next time”. I like your tip about the higher you go at temples and shrines the less people, spot on . The best time we had was at Yamadera, no-one left but us after about 800 steps.
Wow, Denis!!! Well done on the Yamadera 800 steps. Tough one.
Thank you for dropping by (again) ????????????
There were 200 more after that.
I don’t know if I have the stamina to even pass the 500 steps 😛
Joyce, here is the link to a post I did a while ago. The first image is from the top step at Yamadera. https://haikuhound.wordpress.com/category/yamadera/
What a powerful piece, Denis! I’ve just been to this link. Thank you for sharing ????