Fushimi Inari is the head shrine of Inari, the Shintō deity of rice, sake, and prosperity, and one of the most photographed places in Japan. The shrine sits at the foot of Mount Inari, south of Kyoto Station, and a network of orange torii gates — together known as the Senbon Torii ("thousand gates" but in practice closer to ten thousand) — winds up the mountain through cedar forest for about four kilometres.
The full hike to the summit takes two to three hours up and back; most visitors give up at the first major junction half an hour in, which is where almost all the famous photographs are taken. Anyone willing to keep climbing past that point will find smaller subsidiary shrines, fox statues with stones in their mouths, and stretches of forest with almost no one around. Stone foxes — kitsune, Inari's messengers — line every path. Open all hours; come at dawn or after dark for a different mood entirely.