As you may recall from my last post – we had visited the Fushimi Inari Shrine on the morning of our day trip to Nara. The two sites were a good fit as the rest of the temples in Kyoto can be neatly divided and conquered – there is a cluster of them east of Kyoto which are all in proximity to the city centre and then there is another cluster further out west, in Arashiyama. This leaves Fushimi Inari a little isolated given it’s not walkable from the CBD. Our pairing with Nara worked as the shrine was only a few minutes away by train so we grabbed some Onigiri (bamboo shoots for vegetarians) for breakfast and started our day at this beautiful temple.

The Fushimi Inari Shrine has earned itself a place among Japan’s most famous sights owing to those seemingly never-ending path of bright orange tori gates. The path is a return hike of about 2-3 hours from the base to the top of Mount Inari and there are multiple small shrines scattered along the way should you wish to take a detour or rest.

Now, the downside of all incredible tourist spots are naturally, the tourists themselves. The path is flooded with crowds, so I suggest coming either early in the morning or late into the evening. We arrived at around 9am and were already greeted by plenty of like-minded travellers (as you can see from some of the pictures). While the entire walk is certainly do-able, it’s also fine to do only part of the hike like we did, as we were conscious of keeping enough time for Nara. And if like us, your primary purpose was to capture the view on your camera, be aware that after 30 minutes into the hike, the striking tori gates become sparser and lose the effect of an endless corridor of giant chopsticks.

We left Fushimi Inari for stop number 2 at midday, giving us half a day in Nara where we took our time to enjoy the peace. This trip could also be done in reverse too, if you want to enjoy the shrine and its hike in the evening instead.

But regardless of when you do it, do I suggest setting aside a couple of hours just to visit the shrine? Yes, absolutely. The main shrine isn’t spectacular per se but the torii gate path is truly unique. We got the photos we wanted and personally, didn’t mind the morning crowds that much. Maybe next time, we will go in the evening and experience the same path in a different light.