Twelveth Week

KYOTO

This week I took a little trip to Kyoto to see the 'momiji.' Now, I'm not entirely clear on what is momiji, the name of the leaves or the term for the change of colors. 

 My first stop after getting to Kyoto was the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

 

 And the extremely long line of tori is what the shrine is more famous for.

 On the back side of the tori there was writing on them.

 The tori would sometimes end only to lead of to another path of more tori.  It really was endless.

 So on the right side of the tori it says the year and month that they were either built or placed, not quite clear on that.  But the kanji for 建てる (to build) is there.  The closest one says it's from Heisei 22 (2010) Febuary.  The one to the left of it says Heisei 24 March. And that's all I can get.

 I'm not entirely sure what's on the left but I think they're like the sponsors of the tori or something like that, since some of them would have 会社(company) or 工場(factory).

 All around the tori there was just plain forest.

 Interestingly, there was one missing.

 

 I'm not sure what this was.

 One of the very few paths that didn't have tori.  I think I saw only three.

 This one was so new they still hadn't painted it in black yet.

 This was in the entrance to Kinkaku-ji Temple (the Golden Pavillion).  Lots of momiji here. There were a ton of people. And many of the natives were so excited about the momiji they would be bending over fences to try to grab some of the fallen leaves, both young children and old women.

 

 

 This was my entrance ticket.  It was pretty nice.

 There is a golden phoenix at the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 And for my trip to Kyoto I rode the Shinkansen (Bullet Train).  It's very fast, but you can't really feel it.