Bamboo and Torii Gates

Monday, March 30, 2026

We visited a bamboo forest today. We, and a lot of other people, walked through towering bamboo. I know it grows quickly, but it was all tall. I wondered why there wasn’t some new bamboo. It was pretty.

There was a garden at the end of the bamboo that had once been the home of a silent movie star. It was just a beautiful walk. We couldn’t have enjoyed it more. It had fabulous paths.

We came upon a container cafe selling hamburgers. I wasn’t hungry, but the others had burgers (I know we are in Japan and burgers are from home, but sometimes you are in a bamboo forest and there are just burgers). I had a condiment sandwich (Kristine’s not-able-to-be-eaten-gluten bun with the ketchup, mustard, and relish). It was exactly what I needed and delicious.

Keith had a Crunky ice cream treat. It is ice cream cone material made into two rectangles with chocolate and vanilla ice cream inside. It is a thing.

This guy was just by someone’s drive way.

There is a place called Senbon Torii, which means a Thousand Torii Gates. It’s a path up Mt Inari of torii (over 10,000 over the entire mountain) that have been collected and donated since the start of the Edo period (1603). They are close (or close-ish) together and make almost a tunnel at certain points. It goes up and up for 4km. We didn’t get quite to the top, because after a while, it’s a lot of torii gates. Keith said, “It’s a celebration of all colors, but mostly orange.” Kristine just learned how to erase people out of pictures, so have a beautifully empty entrance. (There were a LOT of people there)

These guys were making a video of themselves dancing two seconds befoe this, so I used their preoccupation watching the video to get their picture. Really, I just wanted their clothes. Look at that gorgeous fabric. Wow!

We scored a food court of tents. We tried bruleed sweet potato, waygu skewer, gyoza, karaage, and okonomiyaki. It was all good – to some degree.