「One day at the Fushimi Inari Shrine 伏見稲荷大社」

I spent some days at the house of my letterfriend Mayo san in Kōbe 神戸. She made up a little plan to show me the culture of Japan, but it was a surprise. We woke up early in the morning to catch the train to Kyoto 京都. In the evening, after spending the day in Kyoto, our next destination was the Fushimi Inari Shrine. 

The final stations name was "Inari" 稲荷. We walked out of this little train station and the entrance of the shrine was just in front of us! I was surprised how small this little town is, even though this shrine is so famous.

My letterfriend booked a hotel near the shrine, so we could visit it the next day. I think it's s japanese thing, she booked 2 rooms even though we were only 2 persons. But for me, it was Ok :)

The next morning, we finally headed out to the shrine. There were many statues of foxes "kitsune" 狐. 

While walking upstairs, there was a group of school girls that were watching me. As soon as I got closer to them, they asked me if I want to take a photo with them (if you're a foreigner in Japan, this will happen to you pretty often)

Walking through those red tōris 桃李, is really a nice thing. It looks so cool, and sometimes you get to a crossing where you have to choose which way to go, (it doesn't matter which one you choose, all ways go to the top) some are faster, some take longer. 

 

One time, we reached a beautiful place where you get out of the tōri way and see some shrines. Then the tōti continue. 

 

At the end we walked back down a little street next to the tōris. There, we spotted an old lady selling something to eat, so we got a little hungry. When we got closer, I recognized that she was selling Mochi 餅! Mochi are little rice cakes, that usually are gummy on the outside and soft on the inside. 

The Mochis had the color rose, so I could imagine what kind of taste they had - Sakura さくら！(Japanese cherry blossom) there were only 2 left, ao we took this chance and enjoyed the end of this day with a little bite of Sakura Mochi ( ^ω^ )