A circuit of Naritasan Shinshoji Temple

In the previous post, we left off on Shakado Hall. Between the Great Main Hall and the Shakado Hall, there are steps going up. (I am guessing that Naritasan Temple has the -san suffix because it is located on Narita hill.)

I took this photo to show the statue and the wall on the right

The wall tiles have writing on them...though I don't know what they say. I didn't have that much time to leisurely walk around, so I skipped trying to translate them.

there is a lift for those who do not want to (or cannot) take the stairs

what we see upon reaching the top of the stairs

Gakudo Hall

this hall is on stilts, which differentiates it from the next one...

Komyodo Hall

When writing this post, I almost skipped the last photo of Gakudo Hall, because I thought it was this hall. But like I said, the stilts make it easier to tell them apart.

a closer look

amulets on the left

a map...and a path leading down, presumably to the Naritasan Park

letting you see how deeply it goes down

I think this statue was on the left of the path when going towards the great pagoda

a glimpse of the Iouden Pagoda (I like how the tree on the right frames the view, and the colours of the flowers and leaves)

in this photo as well, I like how the trees frame the view

although this photo offers a better view of the two pagodas

selfie with the Great Peace Pagoda (and the Iouden Pagoda, though at the time I had no idea that it was also a pagoda :P )

inside the Iouden Pagoda

the exterior

up the steps of the Great Peace Pagoda

a closer view; their incense holders have such unique designs!

inside the pagoda

another photo because the man was blocking one part, and now both of them are blocking another part... so with both photos, you can see it all :P

there are writing on the fences (do we call these fences?) that I find pretty

Upon using Google Lens, I see that these are names of people and companies. Maybe they are donors?

again, stairs going deep down into the park

I didn't visit the park since I didn't have enough time.

Opposite the Iouden Pagoda, there was one of those purifying water places. There was also a photo of this in my previous post. This time I decided to do a little research, and it is called chozuya . This article explains it like this: “Here you purify your hands and mouth before entering the shrine proper. [...] First take the ladle and rinse your left hand, then right hand, then your mouth.” 

I initially did not plan to take a photo of it (was trying to cut down on taking too many photos), but as I was leaving the area, I saw these ladies in kimono and decided to snap a photo. 

On the way back to the main hall, I took a look at the smaller halls opposite the Komyodo and Gakudo Halls.

Seiryu Gongen Hall alias Myoken Shrine

copied off the signboard...this and the next hall are not in the tourist map

(this is still the same hall)

By the way, it seems like "do" means hall...so there's some redundancy in the English names that I typed, but whatever.

Kaizando Hall

front view

a small structure that doesn't seem to have a name (you can read the sign yourself)

the big sign says "prayer for academic success"

behind it is Tenmangu Shrine, where a god of learning is enshrined

Between this shrine and the nameless building, there was a path leading out to a road. Opposite the road were these rocks.

There were a lot of them, so here's a panoramic view.

After I went back down to the main hall, and walked around it (earlier I had immediately walked to its left to the Shakado Hall).

back of the main hall

remember the wall at the beginning of this post? It goes all along the back of the main hall...on the rocks are statues of Buddhist disciples

somewhere at the back of the main hall

more statues (if you can spot them)

Shotoku-taishi-do, also a small hall that was not in one of the brochures (I found that a smaller brochure has the names of more halls)

Here again there are ladies in kimono...and this time they are foreigners. If you look closely, you can see that they are Westerners.

three-storied pagoda again, this time viewed from the main hall

selfie with the three-storied pagoda, with the Shotoku-taishi-do in the background on the left

view of the "courtyard", if I can call it so

the two buildings on the right are the Issaikyo-do and the Shoro bell tower

going back down the Niomon Gate

inside the gate, I saw someone looking up, and discovered this!

turns out there's a dragon underneath!

and then, back out to Somon gate

The lady on the right actually noticed that I was taking a photo and was nice enough to stop there to avoid blocking my view. Unfortunately she didn't stop outside my frame. :P I quickly took my photo as if she wasn't in it, then proceeded down.

That's all for tourism in Japan! There's still the Pokemon store to write about...but frankly, that isn't really tourism. It's a store!