Japan - April 2014: Saturday - May 3

Gates of Fushimi Inari Shrine

I packed up and left the room about 7:45. Everyone was heading their own direction this morning. Good by to my roomie April!!! My goal: Fushimi Inari Shrine and a nice morning walk before Richard and I have to catch a train. It worked. The train took 6 minutes....and the shrine was across the street from the station. It was a beautiful morning and it looked like the team was preparing the shrine for a serious celebration. Note the guys on ladders and the decorated trucks.

decorative trucks

Fushimi Inari Shrine preparations
for a festival!

As I began walking up the hillside through those orange gates, I was enthralled at their beauty and how they invited me to keep going. They drew me on and this was quite a hike. It did seem meditative and I had beat most of the crowd. As I got higher on the hillside, there were tea houses looking out over the forest. They were not open however, so I kept going.

tea room along the path

Fushimi Inari Map

Couldn't seem to stop taking pictures.

Many Gates!

Arrived at a lovely look out and had to decided which way to go. I chose the "middle way". A very Zen decision I thought and was surprised to find a small stream with a chorus of frogs and a little boy searching through the ferns to find the critters.

along the trail

By now there were hiking groups of older Japanese with hiking poles (serious) and even a group of runners racing up the steps. I'm sure they made it to the top of Inari Mountain. But, sadly it was time to head back. Lovely early morning outing and meditation. Highly recommend this.

Caught the train back in time to stir Mark and Richard on to packing and checking out. Richard decided to eat his Ramen for breakfast and so we were carrying it through the station. Sat down long enough with Mark to say goodby over breakfast and caught the Shinkensun (bullet train) to Matsumoto.

Takeru met us at the platform! He knew us from facebook. He very graciously piled us and our luggage into the Chamber of Commerce luxury van and we headed for a garden of pink flowers his Mom recommended. Amazing pink phlox. The land owner said he had been growing it for 50 years and lets anyone walk around his garden.

Then we met Take's lovely family and they welcomed us into their home. They fed us amazing amounts of sushi, sushimi, asparagus, tempura, rice and beans (special for celebrating our arrival) chicken, and taught us how to make sushi sandwich thing (like a cone of seaweed with rich and veggies in it). We ate all we could and then presented presents to the family. Take's brothers loved their minion hats for snowboarding. Take and his mom were touched by the beautiful Navaho book markers and Ts____ enjoyed the magic trick. I gave the sisters small IKEA bags for their purses and the father a calendar of the Tetons.