temples & shrines, Osaka

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Temple Nr. 4 was the strangest place in my opinion, because it included several things that looked rather like sports-instruments and soccer-flags for me than as things with a religious meaning. And when you take a closer look at my last 2 photos, that puppet of a snówman & Donald Duck and also that "bee" or whatever that sculpture should be are certainly a part of the arrangements there and not something that is lying around there accidentally.

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maybe someone here on VT can give me some explanations about this temple Nr.4

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Temple Nr.3 was next to the other 2 temples and shrines, but also clearly fenced in as a seperate place. They had some instructions there, how to pray (my 4th photo) and an interesting bell (my 5th photo)
The strangest part of this temple for me was in the backside of the temple Nr.3 and it is shown in my next tip !

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This was obviously a whole temple-district there with various temples and also some graveyards. The area was open to everybody with its own gate from the street and we hardly saw any single person there. Most of the shrines and temples had their doors open, so we could enter and take a look and take photographs as well.

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I show you here some of my photos that I took in shrine Nr.1 while they had their ceremony. We really did not want to go there first, but we were again and again invited by the friendly people there to step in and take a seat, so we finally gave up our hesitation.
NObody there spoke any english nor did we know any word of japanese but their guestures were clear and their smile was as well.
We stayed there for 10 minutes before we silently left again.

Right in the middle of all the chaos of the shopping district and restaurant, we came across a quaint little temple. The shrine was just beautiful, it was coved in moss, visitor would splash water, while make a small donation. WOW.. a must see...

There is a temple in Namba, a very small one. It's shown on detailed maps of downtown.

One night , a friend of mine brought us there as it's one of the rare temple in the middle of downtown. How surprised were we when we saw that a ceremony was taking place. It lasted more than an hour ans was amazing.

It's very tiny, surrounded by restaurants but located on a quiet tiny street.

DIRECTION: Go to Exit 25 of the Namba subway station. Go down the narrow road by the convenience store, cross Shinsaibashi-suji, and look
for a gate straight ahead with some cobblestones behind it. Walk through the
gate and the shrine is right there.

(Thanks Nicki !)

One day when we took another street from our hotel and we discovered this tiny temple tucked away between the modern skyscrapers.
Don´t know the name of the temple nor could we find anything about it in the guidebooks.......

Sumiyoshi Taisha is Osaka's grandest shrine and is a 10minute train ride South of the city centre (on the Nankai line from Nankai Namba - 200 yen).

The shrine supposedly houses the Shinto Gods of the Sea, and is most famous for the beautiful humpbacked Sorihashi Bridge. For a change of pace from Osakas's other sights, it is well worth a visit.

Whilst the wooded grounds are permanently open, it is worth noting that the shrine itself closes at 5pm.

From Sumiyoshi Koen station turn left and you will see the bridge straight in front of you.