CHRONICLE The Land of the Rising Sun | Page 30

And of course my trip in Kyoto wouldn’t be complete with- out setting foot at Fushimi Inari-taisha. An old Shinto temple that stretch up to the Inariyama Mountain with many brightly painted orange Torii gates leading all the way to the top of the hills. The who's who in Kyoto and Japan biggest companies sponsored all the gates (hundreds of them) and their companies' names and well wishes are inscribed on the columns of these eye catching gates. Torii gates represent the entrance into sacred space, passing under one means that you are on sacred ground in the Shinto reli- gion. Shinto is a nature-based religion, so most important shrines are associated with a natural feature like a bay, river, or in this case, a mountain. 19