FAM IN JAPAN - PART IV - FUSHIMIINARI

Lucky for us...we stayed at an airbnb right near Fushimi Inari station and famous Fushimi Inari Taishi shrine! We walked to a nearby bakery to get breaky, and then headed to the shrine as soon as possible. We arrived at around 9am and the place was already packed with tourists. We were a bit overwhelmed but soon learned a **PRO TIP** that changed the game (scroll to find out)!

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our airbnb was super dope and had enough room for all of us (11ppl!!) I especially loved the entrance that felt very Japanese. 

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breaky on the way to the shrine! Gotta love Japanese bakeries! 

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Fushimi Inari Taisha is one of the most famous spots in all of Japan. Apparently it is a place to pray for good luck in business...as each of the red tori gates has been donated by a Japanese business! Foxes are also famous around here for guarding the shrine (usually they are dogs) so you see fox memorabilia everywhere. 

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haha I posed Eden here to get a pic of her with the shrine...NOT knowing she would do this face!! HAHAHHA...she is too cute. 

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The boys were up next...and I figured out a way to get them to smile like this. The trick is to use an element of boys that is pretty much embedded in them from birth... "competition." So what I kept saying was, "OKAY...lets see who was the bigger smile!! Hunty or Cam??" Which produced this shot! hahahaaa.

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aaaaaaand ...back to these faces. 

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My sissy and her two oldest girls. 

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My bro D and Hunty. Hunter loves D!! 

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OK PEOPLE...HERE IS THE ***PRO TIP***!!!! --> Walking up the tori gates is crazy. You can't get a good photo even if you were Beyonce so the trick is...walk 10 minutes up in the crowd and then TURN AROUND TO EXIT. Since everyone is pre-occupied about walking up to the top of the mountain..the exit is magically EMPTY!!!! And you have a 99% higher chance of getting a photo without any people in it...it timed correctly. 

Take for example...

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Russ + Jen with not a single other person in the shot and I did not edit anyone out!! This is pretty much miraculous considering there were thousands of people at this place. LESSON LEARNED. 

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Classic Russ doing yoga everywhere.

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After taking a bunch of photos...we grubbed on some street food and then headed out for the rest of the day. 

Fushimi Inari was awesome and a good stop off for us!! Now off to show you pics of our next spot which was truly epic..N A R A !!!!!