July 7, 2019
Even before stepping a foot inside Kyoto, I had heard that it was the city known for tradition and history. Case and point: the Fushimi inari shrine. While the name itself may not be familiar to the general public, the description most likely will be: the bright orange Asian-looking arches that stretch out, creating a trail of hundreds of these arches. This shrine garners its fame from the Thousand Arches that was absolutely popping with tourists.
Like Gyeongbukgoong in Seoul, this temple was a popular place for tourists to dress up in the traditional Japanese kimono and take advantage of the beautiful scenery. For me, personally, it was my first time seeing the kimono in person and the variety in color and design definitely caught my eye. Another element that caught my attention was the shoes: wooden slippers! While it complimented the outfit, as strange as that may sound, I did not envy their feet!
The arches were beautiful, but it was a shame that it was nearly impossible to take a picture without a trail of people coming in and out of the Senbon Torii (thousands of torii gates). Inscribed on the column of each arch were intricate Japanese characters. The characters may have been anything from wishes to names, but the writing definitely added to the aura of serenity on the trail.
In an effort to escape the heat, and also because we seem unable to turn away from souvenir shops, we entered the largest one and found a plethora of typical souvenirs. It was a welcome respite from the unrelenting heat outside.
And in a true testament to how small the world truly is… on our way down from the temple, we ran into two of my high school friends on a trip. It was not a planned meeting, by any means. We had known that we were both going to be in Japan, but what were the odds that we were actually going to meet? I hadn’t even considered the possibility!
The sun was slowly but surely going to be set, so we decided on our next stop: the lesser-known tourist attraction of the Kimono Forest. It was pillar after pillar of columns lit up with kimono designs. We admired the simple beauty of the attraction, enjoyed some ice cream, and tried (rather unsuccessfully) for pictures without anyone else in it.
