Voyage to Japan 2: 2nd April

You'll possibly be pleased to know that I have very little to say about Fushimi Inari Taisha, except that - for someone of my particular sensibilities, at least - it was great. I've always inclined to animism ("When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones" is a line that makes me nostalgic for the good old days), so it's great to see a whole mountain covered in torii, in shrines large and small, in red-bibbed fox messengers of the divine and real cats (I'm not sure why the last are there, but they are). The whole pilgrimage takes about two hours of walking and climbing, so it's a stretch but not an intimidating prospect, and like all pilgrimages it's an experience partly communal, partly solitary. Rather than talk any more, I'll just give you a few peeks at my own experience, including (because it's food) the tempura udon I had at a way station about halfway up. The amazake I drank when I got to the bottom remains unpictured (it was from a little stall run by a friendly woman off the main track, and I'd have felt self-conscious photographing it) - but it was the perfect way to end the trip.

( Ikimashou! )

( Piss Artist of the Floating World )

Voyage to Japan 2: 2nd April

You'll possibly be pleased to know that I have very little to say about Fushimi Inari Taisha, except that - for someone of my particular sensibilities, at least - it was great. I've always inclined to animism ("When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones" is a line that makes me nostalgic for the good old days), so it's great to see a whole mountain covered in torii, in shrines large and small, in red-bibbed fox messengers of the divine and real cats (I'm not sure why the last are there, but they are). The whole pilgrimage takes about two hours of walking and climbing, so it's a stretch but not an intimidating prospect, and like all pilgrimages it's an experience partly communal, partly solitary. Rather than talk any more, I'll just give you a few peeks at my own experience, including (because it's food) the tempura udon I had at a way station about halfway up. The amazake I drank when I got to the bottom remains unpictured (it was from a little stall run by a friendly woman off the main track, and I'd have felt self-conscious photographing it) - but it was the perfect way to end the trip.

( Ikimashou! )

( Piss Artist of the Floating World )