Fushimi and beyond...

On Saturday, before Ray's game, my friend Vanessa came down and we spent the day in Kyoto.  She had brought a couple free tickets for some various shrines and temples, but to our luck, they were all closed.  We spent the day wandering through that same area, however, and had a delightful time...

The temple gardens are always breathtaking, even in the winter. Such serene design...

A "zen garden", created by raking the sand into designs.  The repetitious nature of this design was amazing...

The first sign of spring!  These plum blossoms were a true delight!  We can't wait to see the entire countryside covered with plum, cherry and peach blossoms come April!!

Don't even ask.  This ... amazing.... statue was in front of a beauty parlor on our walk from destination to destination....

Fushimi Shrine.  This particular Shinto shrine has gained popularity because it was in the movie, "Memoirs of a Geisha".  It has literally thousands of these tall torii gates built over an entire mountainside.  Usually one torii is built to mark the entrance of a shrine, and can be see throughout Japan.  

This is a photo with my buddy Vanessa.  We met while riding our bikes around the lake.  She lives up on the other side of the lake about 1 hour from here... and I always love it when we can make our paths cross!

The Shinto religion is very interesting.  I've come to find that there are literally countless different sects to the Buddhist faith here.  There isn't a certain right or wrong way to follow the religion... though there are many things that a follower can do to earn "pardon" from the gods.  There is a STRONG belief of superstition and luck.  If an individual buys a token, rings a bell, claps a couple times and says a series of words, they believe they will experience wealth for the year.  If they eat a particular shrimp on New Years Day, they believe they will not have bent backs when they get old.   If they eat dried soybeans, one for each year of their age plus one, they believe this will drive out the bad spirits and invite in the good.  It's quite baffling how many things one could possibly do to be "safe" here.  It's tiring!

An offering....

The writing on the back of each torii represents the name of the donor of that particular one...

A grave.  The fox is a "lucky" guardian...