– Namba Yasaka Shrine – 難波八坂神社 –
Osaka（大阪） – February 3, 2018
I decided to tag along with Dude to Kansai and was going to have a lot of time to myself to explore Namba, so naturally I started looking into the shrines and temples in the Namba area. I had a few misadventures because it was my first time navigating Osaka alone, but I managed to visit Namba Yasaka Shrine and Hozenji.
The moment I saw photos of this shrine online I knew I wanted to go see it for myself. The lion-head stage is massive and very striking. I’ve never seeing anything like it before.
With this striking image in my head, I was surprised to discover that it’s in a very normal neighborhood. I was expecting it to be in a flashier, more touristy location, but nope. The area it’s in is very quiet and there were only a few other visitors there.
The stage did not disappoint. You can see it through front torii gate and it’s huge. The temple itself is also lovely, but much smaller than the stage. You can also buy omamori with images of the oni stage on them, but sadly I didn’t get one.
