Epilogue

I'd like to share one thing with you who are unfamiliar with what life is like here in Mt. Inari.

At the end of the year, tea houses in Mt. Inari replenish lucky charms and candles for the new year. The approaches with only 1-meter width are too narrow for handcarts to pass through, to say nothing of cars.

For this reason, a professional porter makes a delivery, who is a rather older man. How do you think he carries the luggage? He carries an about 2-meter length pole diagonally on his shoulder so that it doesn't strike the torii gates, with two 18-liter square cans at both ends of it.

He goes up and forth repeatedly between tea houses and a parking lot. It is not a modern sight at all.

Moreover, most of the tea houses were built during Showa Era (1926-1989), especially before world war II. Every morning, landladies open the wooden shutters skillfully with rattling, which got skewed by the humidity.

However, you should refrain from taking pictures, valuing their feelings, no matter how it looks attractive.

Please be polite in your visit, just like the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do".

KATO