History nibblet: Kyoto expats with a strong dislike for crowds, aside from living in the wrong country, may wish to avoid Fushimi Inari Taisha over the course of New Year. In 2006 the shrine attracted 2.69 million people over 3 days, setting a record for western Japan. It is no coincidence that Memoirs of a Geisha (known as Sayuri in Japan) was made in 2005.

Also known as “the one with all the gates” or “the one in Memoirs of a Geisha”, Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) is a photographer’s wet-dream and looks good in every season and a variety of lighting conditions. Which presumably is why Hollywood decided to rebuild the shrine on a sound stage rather than use the real thing in the aforementioned movie. But hey, why use the real shrine if you can’t even be bothered to use real Japanese people?

History nibblet: Kiyoshi Nozaki’s 1786 book Kitsune: Japan’s Fox of Mystery, Romance and Humor claims the shrine’s two-storey entry gate was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Fushimi Inari Taisha is the head shrine of the Inari area and sits at the base of a mountain called Inari. The head monk is also called Geoff Inari. Ok, that last bit’s not true, but it’s a beautiful and world famous shrine which leads to several trails leading up the mountain to a series of smaller shrines that are all worth a visit if you’re willing to brave the outrageous number of spiders, lizards, frogs and other beasties that make the trail their home.

History nibblet: the shrine started as a collection of three kami placed at the foot of the mountain in 711.

The shrine was originally a place of worship for merchants and manufacturers of Kyoto to come to pray for wealth. The torii gates they donated are tightly packed together in their thousands and line the path almost all the way up the mountain. The shear number of gates starts off dazzlingly beautiful, soon becomes overwhelming and eventually numbingly unfathomable.

History nibblet: The path from the main gate and main shrine to the inner shrine further up the mountain is lined with thousands of gates and numerous fox statues. These foxes are regarded as messengers and are often found in Inari shrines with keys to the rice granary in their mouths.

You’ll need to give yourself a couple of hours for the entire journey up and back again, so you’d be better off waiting for a day off rather than trying to cram it all in your pork-pies before work. If you plan to do the hike in the summer, as picturesque as it is, you may find the step-climbing fun leads to you sweating from pores you never knew a human possessed. As such, we recommend you take some liquid refreshment or an extremely trustworthy anti-perspirant with you on your journey.

History nibblet: the main idol object of Kyoto shrines is usually hidden, but those in Inari, including that is Fushimi Inari Taisha is visible to the public. It’s a mirror.

Access: 3 mins from JR Nara Line Inari Station• 5 minutes from Kyoto Station• 5 mintues from Keihan Electric Railway Fushimi Inari Station