Trip in kyoto

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Fushimi inari (伏見稲荷) Yoimiya sai (宵宮祭) 2018

Perhaps Fushimi Inari Shrine is the best known spot in Kyoto for sightseeing, and most visitors go there during the day. In my opinion, early morning is recommended due to less people and fresh air.

However, I would like to introduce a special occasion in the night time.

Fushimi inari is open 24 hours and there are street lights during night time, whereas a few thousand lanterns and lamps are lighted in the festival nights. There are only two days events in a year, which are Yoimiya-sai and Motomiya-sai respectively.

If you wanna check the dates, this web is recomeended.https://goo.gl/3anB99

This is the entrance gate (Romon), but the atmosphere is different from usual daytime.

The picture on the left is the main shrine, but the experience to climb up to the peak is the main attraction.

All of the vermilion gates, torii, is built by dedication for wishing success for business or personal wishes. There are around 5000 gates, and the number is increasing.

If you have no knowledge how high Fushimi inari is, be careful !! The mountain is higher than you think it is (personal opinion), and it takes more than 1.5hours to the top.

←This is the sign at the top of the mountain. The top is called Ichino-mine and there is a shrine called "Kamisha Shinseki"

←This is the back of
Kamisha Shinseki. Real top of the mountain.

<MAP>https://goo.gl/maps/15VgcMu68hn

Thank you for having a look and see you on the top of Fushimi inari at 2:00 AM

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Kitano Tenmangu (北野天満宮) with plum blossoms in Spring 2018

Kitano Tenmangu is one of the shrines, which was built during the era governed by Sugawara no Michizane, more than 1000 years ago. As I introduced the last time (http://bit.ly/2GhaxS0) , Kitano Tenmangu provides some events throughout the year. Particularly, it is really famous for plum blossoms. From this year, 2018, this shrine started lighting up event as well.

If you know Japan very well, you have noticed that every Tenmangu is famous for plum trees. So why is it? This reason is related to Sugawara no Michizane. In Heian era, he composed a poem which the topic was about plums. After a long time, the poem have became a legend and Tenmangus are enshrining plum trees as the symbol.