For my wife's birthday, we took a trip to Kyoto. I believe that Kyoto was, at one point in the history of Japan, the political capital. It's full of culture, especially temples. Most of the trip, we went from temple to temple, looking at the classic Japanese buildings and the old decorations. There are other things to do in Kyoto, but if you are a tourist, that's going to be most of what you do there. Kyoto has a wonderful public transit system, and we took subways and buses everywhere we wanted to go. The stations are decorated in the style of the attractions nearby, and this area had something to do with kimono production, I think? Here's a picture of it:
This particular shrine was in a bamboo forest. Most people who know anything about bamboo know that it grows really tall, and really fast, but it's incredible to see up close. Like most attractions in Japan, it's well maintained and clean, but they don't really shirk from letting you know that there are gardeners working there. Disneyland and Las Vegas have a reputation for being magical, or larger than life, or unreal, but all of the production is hidden away from view, so that when you see it, it really snaps you out of the fantasy. Here, walking through a bamboo forest is transporting (pun intended) but you can catch glimpses of the gardening equipment being stored or used.
Despite the height that it grows to, this bamboo forest was not that large in ground area. I guess that's par for the course in Japan where everything is compact. I don't really have any concept of what is and is not a large forest of bamboo, but this felt kinda small. It's larger than any bamboo forest that I've ever grown, so I not throwing any shade (pun intended), I'm just saying.
There is a Shinto shrine in the forest, complete with Torii gates. I believe the Shinto tradition holds that Torii gates are gates where spirits can move from the spirit realm into our world. I don't think that you are supposed to be able to move into the spirit world through them, but one could easily imagine how a liminal space like a bamboo forest would inspire the construction of such a transporting device. This is my least favorite combination of colors on torii gates: I don't like the slightly orange-red of the Shinto faith (no offense, it's just not my preference) and I don't like red and green together in most cases, so this combination is less attractive to me, but I'm also very much not the target audience, so there's that.
As with all Shinto shrines, there is a place to buy trinkets and charms. There are different varieties, most of them wishing luck in different ways. Some inspire luck on academic tests, others for good health, others for fertility, or car safety. Separate from that, there is a donation box where you can drop coins and make prayers and wishes. There is a ritual to it, and while I don't know that I would piss anybody off if I did it wrong, I also don't believe in this faith, so I think it's more respectful to politely abstain, rather than to pretend to believe in something that I don't. But I'm also not the person believing in this, so I'm not the one to decide.
The fox is a popular spirit in the Shinto faith. They are smart and cunning, but I have not seen them described as tricksters the way that other religions have trickster gods and spirits. According to Shinto beliefs, they are capable of creating illusions and tricking people, but they don't do it maliciously or for entertainment, they do it for protection or retribution on transgressors. I've seen the fox statues around shrines that are more out of the way, such as those at the top of a mountain, or in a bamboo forest. I don't remember seeing them in places that are easier to get to.
The Kyoto trip was a lot of fun, we stayed in a very small hotel room, which was great because it pushed us to go out and do stuff. Kyoto doesn't need any extra push for that, there is a ton of stuff to see, but it was nice to feel like we didn't waste any money on a fancy hotel room that we never used. The food in Kyoto is fantastic, but I'm not the kind of person who takes pictures of their food, so that's not going to translate to blogs well. Maybe I'll try to start doing that more when we go on trips so that I can post them here and talk about the different foods we ate.
SarisonZero lives and works in Japan. He launched a YouTube channel today. Let's see how that goes.