This next photo was taken at Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, a Shinto holy area in the southeast part of Kyoto. From the second we entered, it really felt like a holy/spiritual place, and it smelled like hinoki cyprus, M's and my favorite smell in the world. We were fortunate to see several rites being performed, although photos are not allowed during the ceremonies. However, if you watch Bad News Bears Go To Japan, you can catch a glimpse of one of the two that we saw. This place is actually in many movies, including more recently, Memoirs of a Geisha (she runs through the torii as a young girl).
And here is a video of G teaching a young Japanese boy how to cleanse himself at the shrine, because, you know, he's an expert... He actually did get it pretty much right, and we think he did it better than probably 99% of tourists would, especially since he remembered to cleanse his mouth, too.
