Hochigai Shrine

Hochigai Shrine 方違神社 Sakai (堺市) March 29, 2025 About Hochigai Shrine The name so this shrine is extremely unusual. 方違 usually involves avoiding traveling in unlucky directions or at unlucky times. Built on a location known as “Mikuniyama” or sometimes “Mikunioka”, it’s right on the border of three provinces of Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi but does not belong to any of them, thus has no direction. Pilgrims of the Kumado Kodo visited this shrine to ward off unlucky directions before heading south. Nowadays it’s often visited by people who are about to go in a new direction in life, such…

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Myoshin-ji – Uryu Goshuin

Myoshin-ji 妙心寺 Kyoto (京都市) June 17, 2023 About Myoshin-ji Myoshin-ji is a large temple complex in Kyoto and the head temple for Renzai Zen Buddhism. Most of the buildings aren’t open to the public, but you can enter the quarters (kuri) and the main hall for a fee. The quarters include the gardens, kitchen, storage areas, etc of Buddhist monks and has been used for filming movies here in Japan. The main hall features a huge painting of a dragon in the clouds on the ceiling. No matter where you stand in the room, it seems to be looking at…

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Kumano Kotai Shrine (Nagano Side)

– Kumano Kotai Shrine – 熊野皇大神社- Karuizawa (軽井沢) – July 22, 2022 Kumano Kotai Shrine is one of the many shrines located along the Nakasendo Highway connecting Kyoto and Tokyo. Built right on the border between modern day Nagano Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture, you can straddle the border and literally be in both prefectures at once. There’s even a plate set into the ground marking the line. We had a good time hopping back and forth across the line. There are several goshuin available at this shrine. This is the normal goshuin available on the Nagano Prefecture side of the…

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Kumano Kotai Shrine (Famous Regional Features) (Nagano Side)

– Kumano Kotai Shrine – 熊野皇大神社- Karuizawa (軽井沢) – July 22, 2022 Kumano Kotai Shrine is one of the many shrines located along the Nakasendo Highway connecting Kyoto and Tokyo. Built right on the border between modern day Nagano Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture, you can straddle the border and literally be in both prefectures at once. There’s even a plate set into the ground marking the line. We had a good time hopping back and forth across the line. There are several goshuin available at this shrine. This is one of the special ones available on the Nagano Prefecture side…

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Nihon San Dai Kumano (Kumano Kotai Shrine) (Gunma Side)

Kumano Kotai Jinja

– Kumano Kotai Shrine – 熊野皇大神社- Karuizawa (軽井沢) – July 22, 2022 Kumano Kotai Shrine is one of the many shrines located along the Nakasendo Highway connecting Kyoto and Tokyo. Built right on the border between modern day Nagano Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture, you can straddle the border and literally be in both prefectures at once. There’s even a plate set into the ground marking the line. We had a good time hopping back and forth across the line. There are several goshuin available at this shrine. This is one of the special ones available on the Gunma Prefecture side…

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