Inari hill run

A criminally brief visit to Kyoto, the epicentre of Japanese culture. Sadly, the torrential rain that started last night in Kurashiki continued today: all day. Still, I was determined to make the best of it so headed to Inari and the famous Fushimi Inari Taisha. Despite the rain, large numbers of tourists were at the lower temple, and the lower part of the famous and very photogenic alleys of torii - the traditional orange gates that continue all the way up the mountain, tens of thousands of them all with Japanese inscriptions. After the first few hundred metres I could tolerate the tourists no longer and found a side path through the woods. This was runnable and led past wonderful bamboo forests and a number of shrines to a plateau: no people at all! It took a while, and the rain stayed torrential, so I dropped back to the torii path and continued upwards. The volume of people soon dropped away after I reached a small lake. From here, steep paths (still flanked by the orange torii) led up Mount Inari. Good, if unconventional, training for the fell running season. I descended by a different route to Inari station then had a long walk round the eastern hills, lanes and temples of Kyoto. The rain stayed relentless throughout.