{"id":3154,"date":"2010-01-05T05:30:22","date_gmt":"2010-01-05T10:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/?p=3154"},"modified":"2011-01-05T17:33:51","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T22:33:51","slug":"how-to-see-the-original-japanese-fortune-cookies-in-kyoto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/05\/how-to-see-the-original-japanese-fortune-cookies-in-kyoto\/","title":{"rendered":"How to see the original Japanese fortune cookies in Kyoto!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/AnowLnyO6qLMaxqQCJAfVT7RGUvR9FyXxAKXdIqxrfqsRmKLbPQObdDx5KtG\/IMG_20101217_200815.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/9etlERwLflylvaTCWrj72wGrdTLDsreedZvGqPHVCsFFgL8T0MkCHtjAnDRY\/IMG_20101217_200815.jpg.scaled.500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve long wanted to write this post. Which is how do you go see the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/01\/16\/dining\/16fort.html\">original Japanese fortune cookies<\/a> that I mention in my book? In my book, we were taken there by the Japanese scholar, so I didn&#8217;t have time to explore the surrounding areas.<\/p>\n<p>So it turns out it is supereasy, as the stores are located only two stops from the main Kyoto station on the JR <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nara_Line\">Nara line<\/a>, around the \u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fushimi_Inari-taisha\">Fushimi Inari Taisha<\/a> (\u00e4\u00bc\u008f\u00e8\u00a6\u2039\u00e7\u00a8\u00b2\u00e8\u008d\u00b7\u00e5\u00a4\u00a7). The shrine, which has thousands of orange arches reminiscent of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/html\/thegates\/home.html\">The Gates at Central Park<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0is literally right outside the JR train station when you get out. The fortune cookies are but a two- or three-minute walk from the train station after you turn right (assuming you are coming from the Kyoto Station direction). There are about four stores along a single road which make the fortunes cookies,\u00c2\u00a0variously called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tsujiura senbei,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (\u00e2\u20ac\u009dfortune crackers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153omikuji senbei\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (\u00e2\u20ac\u009dwritten fortune crackers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) or &#8220;suzu senbei&#8221; (\u00e2\u20ac\u009dbell crackers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d).\u00c2\u00a0But you have to be lucky to catch them when they are making the fortune cookies, as opposed to some of the other cookies.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a quick snapshot of what the process looks like:<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"400\" height=\"320\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/H5ZEZ5BjpvQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>The entire thing is worth probably a morning or afternoon of your day, as the walk to the top of the mountain is quite pleasant, and there are some lovely teahouses along the way where you can rest and get the view.<\/p>\n<p>So here are some directions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Go to Kyoto station and take the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nara_Line\">JR Nara line<\/a> to the Inari station (two blocks) that is in front of the main Torii gateway of the shrine. You are right there.<\/li>\n<li>Or go to Gion-Shijo station and take the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Keihan_Electric_Railway\">Keihan railway line<\/a> for a few stops to the Fushimi-Inari station then to get to the shrine you have to pass a lot of the fortune cookie shops.<\/li>\n<li>Or 13 minutes on Kyoto City Bus from Kyoto station bus stop to Fushimi-Inari-Taisha bus stop and 7 minutes on foot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s very busy on weekends, as locals and Japanese tourists alike love coming to the shrine. Below are some of my pictures from the journey.<\/p>\n<p>The fox, or <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kitsune\">kitsune<\/a>, is\u00c2\u00a0closely associated with\u00c2\u00a0<a class=\"mw-redirect\" title=\"Inari (mythology)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Inari_(mythology)\">Inari<\/a>, a\u00c2\u00a0<a title=\"Shinto\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shinto\">Shinto<\/a> <em><a title=\"Kami\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kami\">kami<\/a><\/em> or spirit, and serve as its highly intelligent messengers.\u00c2\u00a0So foxes are everywhere on the way up, around the temple, on the cookies. So below is a chance where people could draw their own fox heads.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/AnowLnyO6qLMaxqQCJAfVT7RGUvR9FyXxAKXdIqxrfqsRmKLbPQObdDx5KtG\/IMG_20101217_200815.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/FkvhCBDGLbwLbhcl84aFPZvBqV8WkoyutmeKxKsNDvdXXwbMoCCttrt1cVlT\/IMG_20101217_023604.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/9yxjJ79EX3l50OVItgbCZLUdcdN3dEAtOiujRYu1ll90gjDi9sQ5rEZgwNK8\/IMG_20101217_023604.jpg.scaled.500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left; \">Stone archway (took the picture for the clouds).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/XXSn1pRif4vESvGSxciMQGtXGcSmaLlhhGwPDUZISc6iaSRqouG1yBnzpvRP\/IMG_20101217_213407.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/oo14CfyXiNktqhtrwBHcRV5HkYcAZ28vJvDVWXK8BawbXDMHfCshqod0Y7yz\/IMG_20101217_213407.jpg.scaled.500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left; \">More shrines. You can see the fox statuettes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/Jie1hzIcREAZKFCRxcDLH2gYNncIb7fX9t7ihPPC4CUrtVa3aki4B0QfYUu8\/IMG_20101217_212356.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/7jGA92mhb5LKoMO35kHXuFD42P8HhqvjM4eH4c6B02VqykDRhwF4wNKuVR8N\/IMG_20101217_220013.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/XxYXCFI7prSIS2TTx4mnscjiBuBRLb1OgvcgESRbyiEl21uQxI3yEfKhx10X\/IMG_20101217_220013.jpg.scaled.500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left; \">More orange Shinto arches.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/DlP39vADx7JPdUV1WuIRRJbCK80NY8cwLVc7BgWcWEVmDU0ZBV2OyxqYyK3F\/IMG_20101217_215818.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/posterous.com\/getfile\/files.posterous.com\/jenny8lee\/20K8MFtzVJ9JOIasHoO9t64vd61owTHlhpBFQChdDqbHX5iuGAcEhbcC2p23\/IMG_20101217_215818.jpg.scaled.500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left; \">The Japanese fortune cookies themselves cost about $1 each from the various stories (depending on how our dollar\/yen exchange rate is going), if you want to bring them home as souvenirs. There is a slight, but not significant discount in bulk. People *love* getting them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/hougyokudo-bakery-various-senbei.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/hougyokudo-bakery-various-senbei.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve long wanted to write this post. Which is how do you go see the original Japanese fortune cookies that I mention in my book? In my book, we were taken there by the Japanese scholar, so I didn&#8217;t have time to explore the surrounding areas. So it turns out it is supereasy, as the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinese-food"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2pydS-OS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3154"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3202,"href":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3154\/revisions\/3202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fortunecookiechronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}