January 18, 2011
10:21 PM
18 Jan 2011, Japan Day 11
Hate having to wake up everyday. xD Bed is so warm, everywhere else is so cold.
First stop Nijo castle. Got there and found out it was closed for the day. Okay, so much for the first stop.
Second was Ginkaku temple. Having a fully gold-plated pavilion is kinda oxymoronic, but meh, a good sight is a good sight. There was a golden bird on the top of the pavilion. Instantly reminded me of Ho-Oh from Pokemon.. you can see where the developers got their inspiration from.
Third, Matsunoo Grand Shrine. Apparently its the shrine for the god of sake-making. Makes you wonder about the line between religiousness and merry-making. One of the shrine staff was even smoking. I guess the best sight there were the four young shrine maidens. CUTE!!
Final stop, Fushimi Inari shrine, aka torii gate shrine. Another one of the epic sights in Japan. The mountain path toward the inner shrine is lined with literally thousands of torii gates. Sometimes there are so many that even the sunlight gets obscured. Walking the full path takes a good few hours. Every torii gate was donated, usually by businesses in hope for good business, since the shrine god Inari is the god of rice, and therefore success in business. The smallest torii gate would cost around 300,000 yen, while the largest would set you back by over a million yen. Counting the thousands of gates currently existing, one can only imagine the amount of donations the shrine gets every year.