Inari Fushimi

Today we went to Inari.
Inari is the Japanese kami of fertility, rice, agriculture, foxes, industry and worldly success and one of the principal kami of Shinto.

We spent most of the day walking up the mountain, upon which stands the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine. These vivid red corridors go up the whole mountain and down the other side and along the way are thousands of shrines with candles and incense burning, many with offerings of rice and sake, most of which have effigies of the fox.
We were fairly knackered by the end of the day, Ruby was mortified by being eaten alive by tiger mozzies (a particularly vicious species of mozzie, identifiable by their black bodies and white stripes) but she consoled herself by buying an adorable silk kimono for herself at the end.
She looked lovely.