November 16, 2025 – Kyoto We turned to Lonely Planet Pocket Guide to Kyoto & Osaka to organize our first full day--a Sunday--in Kyoto. On the agenda were Fushimi Inari-Taisha, the much-photographed 1,000 torii shrine; Higashi Hongan-ji, a monumental Buddhist temple; Shosei-en, a traditional strolling garden from the 17 th c.; and Sumiya Cultural Art Museum, a wooden building from the Edo period located in the Old Red Light District. Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine To reach the shrine, we took the Karasumi Line from Shijo Station near our apartment, transferred to the JR Nara Line at Kyoto Station, where I had picked up a train stamp for my sketchbook collection the day before. We exited at Inari Station, the whole trip having taken all of 20 minutes. The shrine is located at the base of 233-meter-high Mount Inari and is famous for its thousands of vermilion gates that form a tunnel marching 2.5 kilometers up the mountain. From Wiki : The shrine was form...