Fushimi Inari in the Rain

Today was another rainy day, and we took the opportunity to go to Fushimi Inari. It is a very famous shrine, and even if you don't recognize the name, you have probably heard of it.

A torii (shinto archway) that stands over the entrance of the shrine.

A building by the entrance.

A cat taking shelter from the rain underneath a display. Cats seem to be very common at shrines, as almost every one we've been to has had stray cats.

A tunnel of torii. The first of many.

A particularly dense section of torii. The pillars were smaller, but the gaps between them were very tight. There were two tunnels, which both started and ended at the same places.

There were occasional gaps in the torii, where presumably they had been taken down to be repaired or replaced.

A pair of fox statues guarding a tunnel of torii.

The wet forest. Where there were not torii, the beautiful forest could be seen.

Fox face charms. The eyebrows were predrawn, but all the facial features were drawn by the patrons. Some of them were quite amusing, clever, or unusual.

In addition, there were shrines periodically throughout the grounds

Ah stairs. With more than three hours of walking through a shrine built on a mountain, you will see quite a few stairs. Note the drainage trenches next to them; they come in handy on a day like today.

This is what happens when there are no such trenches, this staircase is on an out of the way shrine, where Matt happened to soak his shoes.

A pond next to a shrine. The orange makes a nice contrast, and the whole thing is fairly picturesque.

The shrine at the highest point of the mountain. The area was heavily wooded, so did not afford a good view, but some of the lower points had lookouts.

On our way back, the rain picked up and if fogged up a little, but we were safe under our umbrellas.