Sunday, March 28, 2010

Fushimi Inari Shrine

So, one VERY rainy day, Pat and Melody made plans to go visit the "Fushimi Inari" shrine. I was a little reluctant to go, but I decided that it would be for the best that I just tagged along if not for some scenic experience.

This is where we entered the shrine. Now that I look at it, we were destined to start off on a bad foot. That gate looks backwards to me. I'm thinking we've entered the out. The Fushimi Inari Shrine is in Kyoto. It was very rainy and never stopped once.

As if there wasn't enough water already, here you purify yourself before entering the more sacred grounds. You take a ladle, collect the water from beneath it, pour it onto both of your hands, but don't pout the water back where you got the water from!

Here is a photo of the main entrance at the front. (Where we should have come in).

Here is a photo of the entrance up close. You can see the "mon" or crest of the shrine.

In front of the entrance, there is an apparatus that looks like it is for ceremony performances. Oddly enough, I came to that conclusion only after seeing things similar to it in Second Life.

This is a close up of the apparatus.

This is the place where you pray. You give a donation, ring the bell, clap twice and pray. Hopefully your prayer comes true!

Prayers in action.

A close up.

The fox deity of the shrine.


Looking back. . .

Pretty Plum Blossoms

Written wishes...

More wishes...

Ascent...

Another place to pray.

The Fushimi Inari shrine is famous for it's multiples of "tori" gates that take you through and over a mountain path.



On the backside of all the "tori," there are company advertisements. It is very expensive for a company to put their name here. :)

Beautiful forest surrounds the paths.

After that, my camera died. :(
Along the path there are many traditional sit down cafes. I wanted to eat at one, but since it was rainy, it would be strange to sit on our wet feet. Udon sounded very delicious in this cold rain. We also ended up taking a "trail" path.. which eventually got us lost. We somehow ended up two stations away from the station we had arrived at. Silly how that works out! All we knew was that we had climbed over a mountain. haha. We just followed groups of school children to the trains. I ended up getting sick from being in the rain the past two days. :\

I'm better now, and spring break is over. More studies are on my way. I've had to spend a while thinking about what courses to sign up for back at Mount. I've decided to pick up a "Non-western Studies" minor. I'm also taking random computer science classes for fun. (I need the credit hours to graduate...).

Next semester is looking great!

4 comments:

  1. Ahhh, it all looks so amazing.

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  2. Glad to hear you are now feeling better. We all went through mucky-muck for a while too. Karla got real sick and had to be put on steroids, anti-biotics and inhalers to get over her illness. I think I had the same thing prior. Took me a while to get over it, but I did.

    Landon is getting so big and has a HUGE personality. I will get to see him today for a while, (tomorrow and Wednesday too), which will be great, because I will not get to see him for a full week.

    Soon you will be out of school completely, and making other plans.

    Julie is planning on having a baby right after she gets married. She said "time was running out". LOL She did wait a pretty long time.

    We get to see Weegs occasionally, which is nice. We love it when he visits.

    I hope your weather starts to clear up, so you can enjoy some good sunshine. Our weather took a dump again. Back to cold and rain. I am SO glad we are taking off to WARM. Weather should be a little better when we come back, since it will be mid April when we get back.

    LOVE, HUGS and Miss you like crazy~
    Mom (Tim and all of us)

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  3. I miss Landon. I keep seeing pictures of him on Karla's FB. He's got quite the face and I see him sporting that blonde hair.

    The weather was a little like home today. When I first went to class, it was sunny . . . then it started to sprinkle. It was just cold enough for a light jacket. Then... on my way back home, it was cold.. raining and even snowy. :[

    Bring back some sunshine.

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  4. yeah, Landon misses his Aunty Kaylie too. He is now shaking his head "NO", and is a little on the spoiled side, but just likes being with people AT ALL TIMES. He must pick that up from Connor. LOL ha ha ha

    Yeah, the weather still SUCKS here. We did have snow again. ACK and it's 37 degrees here currently.

    I leave in two days... YAY!

    Cannot wait till you get back home.
    HUGS and LOVE!
    Mom

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