Do THIS When You Visit Japan (Kyoto Torii Gates)

Exploring the world famouse Fushimi Inari Shrine in the forest of Kyoto Japan + tips for getting away from the crowds, budget tips on how to travel Japan on $100 USD or less + our travel plans.
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Traveling to Kyoto Japan? This “Kyoto Japan travel guide” is crafted to navigate you through the enchanting streets of Kyoto, leading you to one of its most iconic landmarks, the Fushimi Inari Shrine. My top travel tip for Japan is if you’re heading to Kyoto Japan to visit the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine, just walk up the mountain & you’ll find yourself in a magical forest full of hiking paths – and zero crowds.

Historical Prelude to Fushimi Inari Shrine

Nestled at the base of Inari Mountain, Fushimi Inari Shrine is a breathtaking site, renowned for its thousands of vermilion torii gates that trail through the woods, creating an otherworldly corridor towards the sacred Mount Inari. Dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice, fertility, and industry, the shrine has been a pivotal site of worship for both locals and travelers for over a thousand years. Its origins trace back to the early 8th century, making it a timeless witness to the unfolding story of Kyoto and Japan at large.

The deity Inari, represented by foxes believed to be the messengers of the gods, holds a special place in the hearts of the Japanese people. These foxes, or ‘kitsune’, are revered for their intelligence and cunning, qualities that have woven them into the fabric of many Japanese folktales and religious beliefs.

For those of us delving into the wonders of Kyoto for the first time, Fushimi Inari Shrine offers not just a journey through a stunning landscape, but a profound immersion into the spiritual tapestry that defines Japanese culture. As this “Kyoto Japan travel guide” unfolds, we’ll explore the deeper significance of this sacred site, uncovering the layers of history, mythology, and natural beauty that make Fushimi Inari Shrine a quintessential part of the Kyoto experience.

For many first-time visitors to Kyoto, the allure of Fushimi Inari Shrine is not just in its thousands of iconic vermilion torii gates, but also in the opportunity it presents to connect with a deeper sense of peace and spirituality that can often be elusive amidst the throngs of tourists. This “Kyoto Japan travel guide” segment reveals a lesser-known secret of the shrine — the tranquil ascent up Mount Inari, where the crowds thin and the true serenity of this sacred place unfolds.

As you start your journey at the shrine’s bustling entrance, the excitement and energy of fellow visitors can be invigorating, but also overwhelming. The path lined with torii gates, known as Senbon Torii, is an unforgettable sight, but it’s just the beginning of what Fushimi Inari has to offer. The real magic lies further up the mountain, where the dense crowds start to dissipate, and a more intimate experience with the shrine’s natural and spiritual beauty awaits.

The hike up Mount Inari is a moderate one, suitable for most fitness levels, and it weaves through a series of smaller sub-shrines, bamboo forests, and quiet ponds, each offering a unique vantage point and a moment of reflection. As you ascend, the sounds of the city fade into the background, replaced by the rustling of leaves, the distant clinking of small bells attached to the torii gates, and perhaps the soft murmur of a fellow pilgrim’s prayers.

This journey up the mountain is a metaphorical one as well, inviting visitors to leave behind the noise and distractions of everyday life and enter a space of contemplation and renewal. Along the way, you’ll encounter countless smaller torii gates, donated by individuals and businesses hoping to receive blessings from Inari. These gates, less grand but no less significant, mark a path less trodden, where the spirit of Inari feels closer, more personal.

Reaching the summit of Mount Inari is an achievement in itself, offering breathtaking views over Kyoto and a profound sense of accomplishment. However, the true reward lies in the quiet moments of solitude and connection with nature along the way. Here, in the hushed ambience of the mountain, you can truly appreciate the essence of Fushimi Inari Shrine, away from the buzz and bustle of the tourist paths.

For first-timers in Kyoto, this ascent up Mount Inari is a vivid reminder of the beauty that lies just beyond the beaten path. It’s an invitation to explore, to seek out those quiet corners of the world where we can connect with something greater than ourselves. As this “Kyoto Japan travel guide” suggests, sometimes the best way to truly experience a place is to escape the crowds and venture up, where the paths are quieter, and the sacred whispers of the past are just a gentle breeze away.

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Hey it’s Nate and Adriana and today we’re exploring the enchanting Temple of usim anari Taisha a gem nestled in Kyoto’s Lush landscape we’re going to take you on a magical hike through this iconic Shrine renowned for its mesmerizing corridors of bright orange toies picture thousands of bright orange

Tories creating a path through a forested mountain with Greenery in all directions and if you stick around in the end we’ll show you some secret spots we venture to it’s truly a spiritual place where you can feel the presence of ancient ghosts walking beside you hey guys how’s it going we’re here in

Kiyoto Japan and today we’re going to one of the most famous shrines it’s called Fushimi anari so we’re here right on the popular Street we just took three trains to get here see there’s a lot of people here right now so it’s going to be pretty packed because we’re here on a Saturday

But it’s super cool because there’s a lot of people dressed up in kimonos and there’s also a lot of street food everywhere so you can see this place is famous for those orange Tory Gates that you see right here you can see they have Mochi shops here ramen shops this one sells

Tempura they’re making shaved ice over there yeah it’s pretty cool this one is oysters on the half shell looks like omelets crab sticks fresh orange juice and you can see that orange gate up ahead look at the Mochi that looks really good it’s so weird looking oh they grow it right there on

The fire I’m going to have to get one of those later hey guys what’s up we’re here at the Fushimi anari Shrine in Kyoto Japan and it’s so beautiful here we’re going to take you guys on a quick hike uh we basically need to cut through

This crowd for 20 minutes and then we’ll go up the mountain so far it’s beautiful here and my first impressions are that I’m blown away and it’s definitely worth coming here so let’s go on this hike Guys So this is the entrance to the whole thing it looks like there’s a couple of these um orange temples and shrines like when you get started and then what’s cool about this place is we’re going to be walking through about a few hundred of these orange uh what is it Shrine

Entrances here so this is an orange Tory gate and we’re going to be walking through a couple hundred of them in a minute but I just wanted to show you around with this entrance area and these are normally at all the temples you’ll see like doners and people that

Are um keeping the place operating and so far place looks pretty incredible so since there is a pretty big crowd through the Tory Gates what we’re going to do is take a little shortcut here to go to a different route that will still take us up the mountain

But this time we’ll just pass through all the the hordes of people and kind of get to a more relaxed environment where it’s kind of more natury oh it’s already starting to get a little bit emptier here this is nice so you have this these toy gates

Are basically in the middle of a wooded forest so it’s really shady and peaceful you can hear the birds and look how many of them there are 1,000 it’s pretty nuts wow this is really pretty you guys so beautiful so I thought in this video we

Would take the time since we have B in you know quite a while till we get up the mountain to talk to you guys about our travel plans uh where we’ve been the beginning of this year and yeah where we’re headed so there’s a lot to cover

There um and basically we’re here in Japan for another month or so so we’ll be here for the summer and we’re going to do July in Japan it’s heating up already which is pretty Cool so check this out we’ve only been walking a couple minutes up the mountain and already it went from like thousands of people to like four people so that is a tip if you come here definitely make the hike up the mountain because I think it’s really nice to

Escape the crowds and that was actually one of my worries about even coming here I thought about just skipping it Al together cuz I thought oh is it overrated um but then I had some friends that have been here and they said you know what just do the hike do you hike

Up the mountain check this out if you hike up the mountain it’s really nice you even have these Rivers next to you down there so pretty you have these little snack shops here too where you can buy fans and cookies and matcha tea look at these foxes right here

Pretty cool oh there is a big giant spider too I almost put my head in the cob yeah so our whole goal for this time in East Asia has been to keep it super cheap so what we’ve done to accomplish that is we booked our places for longer

Periods of time which gives us like a monthly discount on Airbnb and we wanted to keep it on average about $50 a day or less which we’ve done in Taiwan Korea and Japan now which are like notoriously expensive places so I’m actually pretty proud of that feels like an

Accomplishment we have a twostory house here in Kyoto which comes with a kitchen a washer dryer um beautiful place and it’s only $48 a night which is pretty much all taxes yeah that’s a steal woo it’s hard to talk and climb this mountain but yeah basically we’ve

Been having really good success in terms of staying on a budget here in southeast Asia and keeping it cheap and we use our Nomad budget app to kind of keep track of our expenses and see where we’re at so we’re going to attempt to keep filming here while climbing this

Mountain check out these stairs that we’re climbing it’s no joke guys we’re doing this in the summertime here in Japan so it’s pretty nice it’s about 80° out a little bit humid and this is the month known as the month of water here because it’s the wetest month in Japan I didn’t realize

That the Summers here in Japan were wet so it rains pretty much every day um and it’s cloudy but on the days like today where it’s not raining and it’s just nice out it’s a really great excuse to just get outdoors and do some hiking so yeah we booked Japan way in advance

Advance a couple months in advance because I figured I didn’t want to wing it U and have like $200 hotels a night so we booked this when we were in Ecuador we took my parents to Ecuador and that was pretty cool and another driving factor for coming to Japan was the safety

So let me just show you guys this Temple here got to catch our breath a bit here’s the Tory Gates how cute they make them little and then you can see the fox here with something in his mouth I I’ve heard that it’s cereal so we’re going to go up this mountain

Next and honestly I don’t think it really matters what day you come because even if you come on a Saturday afternoon it doesn’t matter because you can just pass the crowd by going up the mountain like we said so if you’re not a morning person don’t worry you don’t

Have to come here at 6:00 a.m. like all the a little head spot like all the blogs and guide books say so we’re just kind of walking around exploring this area and this might be a cemetery yeah it does kind of give me yeah I think Cemetery

Vibes but you will see hundreds if not thousands of the stone foxes which represent prosperity and are the gods of rice that people pray to and you can always use Google Translate to see what’s on these Stone Hedges yeah this definitely feels like a cemetery what’s

Up so here you can see we’re at a shrine here they have the candles actually glowing yeah subscribe n aana all right so we’re going to head down now we were just walking in the past 40 minutes up the shrine and so we wanted to show you guys what it looks like down

The shrine because this is basically the best way to avoid crowds you see there’s literally no one here uh basically everyone takes photos down at the base of the Fushimi anari but not a lot of people actually climb up it so if you’re looking to just kind of explore

Nature and see one of the most historic spots here in Kyoto this is definitely the way to go and with that being said you don’t have to come here on a weekday or 6 a.m. we’re here at 400 p.m. on a Saturday we arrived at 3:00 and it’s

Pretty cool and I thought if you guys are new to the channel um this would be a good time to reintroduce ourselves um so basically we’re Nate and Audriana and we’ve been traveling full-time for a couple years now and we have been all over southeast Asia and Europe and so

This time we decided to check out Far East Asia so the past 3 months we’ve been through Taipei Taiwan South Korea and also Japan has been our new destination for the month of June all three new countries for us we actually just hit country number 30 I

Actually didn’t know and then I just wrote a list of it on my phone I was like how many have we been to so 30 I feel like that’s kind of like a cool milestone for us yeah we’re kind of slow Travelers we like to move like sometimes

We’ll do places for 3 months for the first time so we don’t really have high numbers even though I feel like we’ve been traveling for quite a while but yeah we haven’t seen a ton of countries yeah I would agree with at that so we’re just going to continue down here and

Show you guys how pretty it is right now we have these little souvenir shops so if you do want to get like a souvenir of one of these little foxes they’re actually pretty cute and they have food here everything is matcha here in Japan but especially in Kyoto they big on

Matcha so here you got a sweet green tea jelly rice cracker and green tea for only 400 which is like three bucks three bucks yeah and this is looks like it’s a a matcha cookie of some sort for 250 um I would say that in terms of prices it’s actually been pretty chill

Here I thought we were going to be bleeding out of our wallet because that’s what I heard and I think maybe that’s true for Tokyo Tokyo seems like it’ll be pretty expensive if we go there but here in Kyoto it’s actually been pretty inexpensive we usually like to

Eat where the locals eat and a typical meal is between 500 700 Yen which is about $5 1,000 yen is also common for a price um for a meal set and that’s about $7 so yeah5 to $7 is kind of what the locals pay and then of course you know if you

Go to gon or something um we just made a video about that the other week you can see that on that street people are paying $70 $80 for a nice fancy dinner so yeah they have the whole range here I’m just going to continue down you can see they have these really pretty

Bright vibrant red flags I’m sure they have to do something with the religion and someone has lit a candle made a prayer and you can see there’s just the these incredible statues that are so old and someone knitted this little fox a hat which is adorable and you can see the

Iconic orange Tory Gat with more Stone foxes here wow they have lots of colorful really creative outfits here looks like Mickey Mouse or something and another candle so you can see the sign here top of the mountain that way and that’s where we just explored where they had the

Stream and here you can see there’s like this nice little shop here and they’re selling some food I’m curious to check that out but I want to show you the shrine first so when you go in here it feels really damp because it’s been raining non-stop here in Japan we’re

Here I think it’s June 23rd here’s the water ceremony stuff we were talking about earlier and you can see they have stone Tory Gates they have literally thousand of Tory Gates you can see them everywhere something that’s nice about being in this area is that it’s so cool with all the water that’s

Flowing through then we have the canopy of trees above us I’m checking these guys out not really sure what they are they look like they might be shoes made out of rope yeah check that out that’s really cool and as you said that I’m like literally k

By the mosquito so here you can buy sake and fans and other souvenirs they have lots of cool things that you can buy here get check out how cool this old shop is pich so here it looks like they have green tea oh you can sit here which

Sounds pretty nice you can sit here you can grab a drink or something yeah what is this an egg and maybe some tea okay yeah it’s a boiled egg do you want some tea um I think I’m okay okay well if you come here you guys can you know hang out

Right here and have some tea or beer or coffee apparently sock it looks like this place sells a lot of stake it’s so cool in Old School here love it wow check this out there’s like a billion ferns up there did you see see

The ferns oh I love it so pretty look at this I just I actually haven’t walked very far like 40 ft because I just am in awe of everything the Treetops are green I like the wiring here it kind of feels like something out of Indiana Jones or

Something yeah it looks like from the 1940s I don’t think they’ve changed that yeah for 70 80 years original electricity from the late 1800s wow but yeah this is a really cool spot you guys guys so this is the exit here if we keep going okay so we can either go down here

Which it says don’t go not an exit just takes you another it’s a round route okay and then this way it will take you out so if you want more exercise go this way and if you’re ready to exit we’ll go this way you want to go the round Dr I am

Interested in it yeah let’s go check it out yeah let’s just take a peek I want to see what it is let’s do it everything’s been so cool on this path so far that might as well just Explore More routes when given the chance here they have all these beautiful streams

All along the walk here so it’s just really relaxing this is really nice this is beautiful actually really really cool I like it a lot honestly have I come here even if there weren’t all these Tory Gates I would come here just for the hike it’s

So nice just to be in the jungle and to be around all this nature yeah so pretty here oh okay so this is the sign about they try to make him look really innocent the monkey um but basically the sign says be careful because there’s bores and monkeys that are known for attacking

People or biting people so we’ll be careful with that check this out over there they have this giant tree trunk in the middle of that Shrine so maybe that tree was once you know it sound it looks like it’s probably still a holy tree and then they have these really

Cool all the KO yeah this is like a koi fish I’ve never seen that before it’s really just beautiful here you guys there’s the famous Fox enari there’s so much to explore I didn’t realize there was going to be so much to see here I guess it kind of exceeded my

Expectations of think what what I would see here there’s a lot the thing I got like about it is that it is incredibly popular but maybe it’s just cuz of the time of day that we chose to come we’re not seeing too many people here I mean there

Are a lot of people here but if you just kind of step outside of the main Central Area you’re not going to find too many people out here like look at where we’ve been walking around in this area for a few minutes now haven’t really run into

Anyone so yeah we’re here at 5:00 so I guess if you want to come at that time you can definitely escape the crowd if you come later in the day but yeah yeah you can just see how gorgeous this is this is probably the Prest Shrine that we’ve been to in this

Area so far yeah this is the main Shrine from what I understand here at okay fimi andari so this one’s just covered in Moss I saw a sign I don’t actually know a lot about this place impressed me yeah I like how all of these statues here are

Like well most of them are covered in Moss you know that they’re kind of like overgrown a little bit and it’s kind of like the jungle like kindy of reclaim the statues yeah it’s like like you’re kind of sucking it up yeah it’s like just kind of covering everything in the

MTH the forest is taking over guys check this out I wonder if this place is haunted just because the stories that I’ve been seeing online about how it’s kind of creepy here to come at night I wonder and they have these really cool entrances at the Tor you can see they have this

Dry reads here with these horses dressed up really gallantly lots of colorful prayers everywhere so I’m going to go over here there’s a bit of a pathway over here I found what did you see gos up a bit over here well this is like tense look how

Big this is you guys really nice this is crazy wow oh my gosh check this out this is insane look at this this is so cool oh man this place is covered in Moss and there’s like thousands of these shrines these Stone foxes are everywhere and

Look at this like I am not kidding you like this place is like literally covered in Moss this is incredible wo this tree just got like swallowed in moth wow this is beautiful actually have never seen a shrine just absolutely covered from head to toe in so much Moss this is really

Unique look at that tree it really feels like somewhere special honestly I’m glad that we’re able to do this and experience this and nice to be able to share it with the people on the internet the internet on the interweb hope you guys are enjoying our tour of nari shrine

This is our first time here so you’re experiencing it with us we don’t really we didn’t really do a lot of research intentionally because we do like to be kind of surprised by what this place is going to actually be like in reality I feel like sometimes if you

Over prepare it kind of sets up expectations a little too high and it’s it’s easy to disappoint but if you don’t over prepare or in our case under prepare then there’s not really a lot of room to be disappointed you know so you don’t have expectations going into the

Experience and as we’re here we’re trying to learn about the history as well so it’s like an immersive experience for us it’s full of like blue leaves or something oh wow put a couple oh that’s absolutely gorgeous oh look at that look at this Fountain there’s the Stone

Fox presumably with rice or some sort of grain on his head and then they have the ceremonial ablution spoons here that you can just kind of put water on your hand kind of slow are you going to wash your hands just dip it in yeah you could that I love how

They have flowers floating in there it’s such a cool idea gorgeous here’s the flowers and you can see there’s a stream running along the course of the Tor Gates here so basically the whole time we’ve been here I’ve been smelling in sense and it’s just really relaxing

It feels like aroma therapy so I’m feeling super relaxed and super grateful that we made it here to Fushimi Fushimi andari it’s kind of like a mouth um but also wanted to say that these Tory gates are really interesting because the whole point of them the meaning behind them is

That the the purpose of them is that you you’re stepping from the mundane into into the sacred and so they kind of represent basically a Sacred Space so these are very commonly found in Shinto shrines we can also see them at the entrance of some Buddhist temples as

Well so I saw this little house here with a statue inside I was wondering what it is and it’s actually a forest and then when I appeared inside there’s all these business cars that people throw in here because this whole Shrine is about prosperity and doing well in your life

So all these people are asking the deities to make them successful at their business so I thought that was kind of interesting I’ve never seen business cards at a temple before like that just thrown inside of a shrine all right guys I think that’s it

For today we took about 3 hours to walk the whole course here at Fushimi anari and we’re getting to the bottom of it I think we’re going to go grab some dinner do you have an idea of what you want to eat uh anything really uh maybe some I

Like conveyor Bel Sushi a lot yeah we’re basically doing sushi every day now here in Kyoto but yeah it was a nice three-hour Loop here and it’s really just really tranquil there’s actually a lot of people still coming to Fushimi Fushimi anari right now at 6:00 p.m. uh

So they’re here for the sunset and that’s also another really really cool thing that you can do here is come at 600 p.m. yeah beat the heat you can even do a nighttime hike if you wanted to because there are lights everywhere and these will come on in a little bit so

The whole place will be lit up and you can still hike around at night it’s open 2 24 hours a day there no closing time and I don’t know I saw some admission for something when we were coming in but I don’t think we needed to do any of that I think

There might be like a special Temple that you can go into ah yeah so that’s a cool point is that this is actually free so if you’re on a budget here in Kyoto this is one of the free things that you can do and cost no money at all and you

Can also just kind of eat some street food before you come in they have a lot of cheap street food so you can try some of the you know Japanese Specialties that they have here they have like the 10cent coin which is like a basically a grilled cheese and they have Mochi and

Crabsticks and all sorts of fun food so yeah that’s basically uh the end of the shrine here the end of the walk so we’re going to go grab some dinner and if you’d like to follow our journey and see us uh next week make sure to subscribe

Down below and hit that like button it helps us out so much and really helps get this video shared with other people who want to follow us as well so I guess that’s it we’ll see you guys next week Yeah