You can’t choose the weather. But it is disappointing when it rains when you are on holiday. It was a pretty rainy holiday when we were in Kyoto in 2019. Half the time out of 6 days was raining, luckily the day we went to Fushimi Inari wasn’t raining.
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Is it worth visiting Fushimi Inari when raining?
There are two types of temples and shrines in Kyoto. The place you see a lot of thing inside the building, and the place you see most of the things outside the building. Fushimi Inari is the second one. the famous red gates, the walk and shops are all outside.
That means Fushimi Inari is not an ideal place to visit when raining. If you have several days in Kyoto and change the place for each day, you might want to consider visiting Fushimi Inari when not raining. Especially if you are planning to climb the mountain.
But Fushimi Inari itself is close to the stations. So you don’t have to walk a long distance in the rain to access the shrine. Also, the pathway at the shrine is paved and maintained so easy to walk around when wet.
Good things when raining at Fushimi Inari.
Although the rainy day is not the best to visit Fushimi Inari, there is some goods thing too. You don’t have to miss entirely if you can not change the plan.
It’s less busy.
This super famous and always crowded shrine is less busy when wet and rainy. There are always several groups of people in front of the main gate, but not when raining.
It becomes clean and shiny.
Because most of the features are outdoor, they get dusty over time. But the rain washes off the dust and dirt, and they become clean. The foxes statue look shiny when wet.
The red gates bottom part is black, and they are normally dusty and looks more like grey. The rain washes off the dust and the contrast of red and black looks perfect.
The mountain becomes mystical.
The rainy day might be misty too, especially on top of the mountain. It becomes mystical and you can easily feel spiritual.
The things you need to be careful.
Even there are fewer people, you will see lots of tourists visiting the shrine in the rain. On a rainy day, you need to be extra patient as the umbrella in crowds could become a big hazard, especially there is some tiny pathway which two people just could pass each other.
The pathway is paved but could be a little slippery. Watch out for when you are walking stairs.
