The first one was Byodo-in temple. Next to being a World Heritage Site, the temple is also featured on the 10-Yen coin, so it must be pretty significant to the Japanese.
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| This building is nearly 1000 years old. Pretty impressive for a wooden structure, right? |
The temple's main hall is called Phoenix hall, and there are also phoenix statues to be seen on the roof. I'm not sure why phoenixes are considered important here, but there is also one on the 10.000 Yen note.
The second location was Fushimi-inari Taisha, a shrine originally dedicated to gods of rice and sake, and nowadays also to gods of prosperity in business. The shrine is really impressive because of its sheer size and the amount of bright red Torii arching over all of the paths.
Apparently, everybody can buy a gate, write something on its back side, and put it somewhere in the shrine. (Or, for the bigger gates, have someone write something on its back side, and have someone put it up...) Gates of all sizes are available for purchase (the smallest ones starting around 2000 Yen), but the biggest ones are pretty expensive so most of them have been bought by companies.
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| Small gates for sale near the top of the shrine |
