Japan Trip Day 9: Inari (Pictures)
Kashima had one of the sites that I really wanted to go to on this trip, and oddly enough, it is another Inari shrine. This post will contain exactly one picture that I didn't take. But that is only to compare it to a picture I did take. So let's get that one out of the way right off the bat shall we? After further thought, I am going to include a second picture that I didn’t take. Okay… I’ll limit myself to three pictures. But I swear no more…probably.
This is a screen cap I grabbed from an anime. Zombieland Saga to be specific (I will talk more about that when I get to the music post… If I get to the music post)
And here is that same statue in real life. This was outside Kuratsu station. I wish I could say that this was an intentional thing, but it was an accident. I only remembered that the statue was in the show after getting back home.
There are a lot of decorated trains. This one amuses me because it is for Saga Frontier, and I was in the Saga prefecture at the time, but I did not make it to Saga. Saga was a little out of the way during my trip through Saga.
Sitting on the train leaving Kuratsu, heading toward Kashima, I looked out the window and saw this view at one of the many stops.
Another train stop, and another picture, Seriously, I loved my short time in Saga prefecture. So much less crowded than the big cities.
*Not pictured, the long walk to get here* Welcome to the Yutoku Inari shrine! This is the 3rd largest shrine to Inari in Japan. But I have seen bits of the architecture of this one, and I had to see it.
Look at the supports underneath the shrine. This practically floats high above the ground
Another picture of the support structure.
Fish. On the other side there was a rock that people were throwing coins at, it looked like the goal was to get the money to stay on the rock, and not bounce off.
It’s those supports again. I loved the supports. This one also gives a little bit of a view of the shrine above.
Would you look at that. It’s the anime counterpart to Yutaku Inari! They got the foliage wrong, but it showed the supports better. Once again, this is from Zombieland Saga. I honestly could include several pictures from that show here, but I think two works.
I panned a little lower to get a better view of the gate. This is the gate seen at the bottom of the previous two images.
I climbed the steps to get up toward the main shrine. And looked off into the distance.
A look down at the ground, as well as off into the distance.
Screw continuity! This is later in the day. These trees lining the nakamise leading up to the shrine. You can see one of the shops on the left hand side. Every once in a while, the wind would blow, stirring things up into a blizzard of pink.
See? I don’t care about continuity! I’m back up above those supports!
Looking across the way again.
Up the steps... at this point I had walked too much, and was more than a little burned. Those stairs did not look pleasant. I did not go to the inner shrine, because it involved a lot more stairs. Not to mention I wanted to get back for the train. Spoiler alert, I didn’t make the train, and could have climbed higher.
A final view of the shrine before I leave for the train that I didn’t make.
It just wouldn’t be an Inari shrine without a fox statue. Also some torii gates. Not to be confused with tori gates, which guard the Colonel’s secret recipe. (Torii means gate, so I mean technically calling them torii gates is redundant. Also of note, the joke above is that tori is the word for bird)
I was gonna add another picture I don't own here, but decided against it. This is outside a shop I wanted to buy something from, but sadly the shop owner did not seem to be around. So sadly there was no sale...
I didn’t include the image there, I included it here instead! I could include all kinds of pictures of anime throughout these albums. Honestly, I like looking at something in the real world and seeing the animated version.
Okay, I forgot about this scene. Remember 2 images ago, I mentioned a shop where the shopkeeper wasn’t around so I couldn’t buy anything? …This is that shop. On the right you can see ceramic mudskippers. I wanted one of those mudskippers. I ended up buying them from someone on eBay. Who coincidentally went to the shrine like 2 days after I was there.
We return to ground level, and the non-animated world. These are the trees I took pictures of earlier… just this time at ground level.
These types of decorations were on the fence along the road leading up to Yutoku Inari. I'm pretty sure this one depicts a mud skipper. Mud skippers are fairly common in the nearby Ariake sea.
More mudskippers! Sadly, I did not get any pictures of actual mudskippers. I could have because there were some in that shop from earlier, but the water looked a little questionable, also the lighting wasn’t all that great. Now sing the Muddy Mudskipper song with me! (If you remember that from Ren and Stimpy, who are you, we should hang out sometime, you seem pretty cool.)
Sakura along the road, and one more of those mudskipper pictures.
This is the final of the three images that I saw repeating along the path to the shrine, or in this case away from the shrine I suppose. They look like demons playing the drums? So perhaps an ancient incarnation of Slipknot?
Sake that came from 5 different sake breweries in Kashima; Sachihime, Baba, Fukuchiyo, Mitsutake, and Yano respectively. Until this point, I had never seen a flight of sake. The nice guy who ran the bar that I bought these at was kind enough to tell me I missed my train, and that the next train was in three hours. So, this is why I drank.
This ended up being the only souvenir I got from Yutoku Inari. It is mounted on my desk. My desk has become a very busy place
More decorated trains. I really loved that they were creative with the trains, and it wasn’t always the same train everywhere you went. Individuality makes things interesting.
I was honestly just taking a picture of the shinkansen tracks. Not particularly interesting, but there was a bit of a long wait for the train.
Okay... I'm going to admit... I don't remember if I took this picture on the night I arrived in Hiroshima, or the next morning. But... this post has finally made it to the Chopper. (If you don't get the joke, don't worry... it's One Piece of information that doesn't really matter)
