While entering the Fushimi Inari (fox) shrine in Kyoto, Josh stopped to wash his hands in the purifying fountain. I chose not to, because my gloved hands were just barely warm. And so we entered, one unclean and one pure, to check out the stone foxes and the sacred items they guarded.
About two minutes in, the foxes let me have it. I got the hiccups like you wouldn't believe. Loud, relentless. I was barking and croaking. And they did not go away for about half an hour! It did not help that I was also trying to catch my breath; the shrine is a long uphill path. A gorgeous one, at that, layered with torii gates so dense they form a tunnel.
But there's nothing like the hiccups to suck the reverence out of a peaceful moment. If only I had just washed my hands. Sorry, Inari.
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