Fushimi Inari-taisha

Fushimi Inari-taisha is the head shrine of Inari, founded in 711 by the Hata clan and still the parent of thousands of Inari shrines across Japan. It sits at the foot of Mount Inari on the south side of Kyoto, it is free, and it is open around the clock, which is unusual and useful: you can walk in at five in the morning or at eleven at night and nobody will stop you. That single fact is the difference between the photographs you have seen and the shrine most day visitors actually get.

Roughly 10,000 torii stand on the mountain, each one donated by a business, with the donor's name painted on the back of the post. About 800 of them line up close together just behind the main buildings to form the Senbon Torii, the tunnel of vermilion gates that everyone comes for. Walking up through it you see plain wood; walking back down you see the names, which is the better half of the experience. This first stretch is where the crowd concentrates, and where a dawn visit pays for itself.

Most visitors photograph the first tunnel and turn around, which is why the shrine empties out the higher you go. The trails span 4 km up and around Mount Inari, which rises to 233 m, and the full loop takes about two hours at a steady pace. It is stairs most of the way, through cedar woods, past small sub-shrines and stacks of miniature torii left by worshippers, with a viewpoint back over Kyoto partway up. Ordinary walking shoes and water are enough; there is nothing technical about it, only a lot of steps.

JR Inari station puts you at the entrance, which makes this one of the few famous sights in Kyoto that does not involve a crowded bus. Tap in with a Suica or Pasmo IC card and go. Come at dawn: the shrine never closes, the first tunnel is empty and the light through the gates is at its best. Shrine manners apply at the bottom, where the main buildings are: bow as you pass the torii, rinse your hands at the basin, and two bows, two claps and one bow at the offering box. Goodbars sells a Japan eSIM you install at home and switch on when you land; it runs on NTT docomo, Japan's largest mobile network by mobile contracts, and our Japan coverage page shows where it reaches and what independent speed tests measure.