Visual Diary: Fushimi Inari

Everything I’d read about this place said the same thing, packed with tourists, shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, impossible to shoot without someone walking into your frame.

And yeah, the main path does get busy later in the day. But Fushimi Inari is huge. Almost labyrinth-like. Take a few turns off the main route and suddenly, the noise fades. You find yourself alone between rows of torii gates, sometimes watched by those slightly creepy fox statues.

I went early, before the rush. The light was soft, the air still cool. Loaded up on convenience store snacks. Climbing to the top felt like trading my morning run for a quiet ritual.

Every corner held a little story: weathered shrines, half-burnt incense, flickers of red/orange cutting through the trees. I wandered aimlessly, no real plan, just following wherever curiosity pulled me.

By the time I looped back down, I wasn’t sure how long I’d been up there. Hours, days, years… am I still there? Time kind of dissolves in places like this.

Here are a few frames from that morning, pieces of a maze that still lingers in my head.