Hello friends and welcome to another, albeit unexpected, temple and shrine edition of our story.

Following on from our trip to Okawa-Jinja and Tokura shrine we visited a few more places a little bit closer to where we are based. One of them being near Sandanike Park.
At the top of the road is Daigoji Temple which I have to say is a wonderful place to visit. Very calm and relaxing and not as imposing as other temples can be when first approaching them. This is probably helped by the guardian who greets you at the first main gate upon entrance to the temple proper.

Absolutely full of expression and I can’t help but think that he’s waiting to take your order 🙂 .

He caught me by surprise as I haven’t seen anything like this in Kyoto city, usually the ones Sas and I walk around have bamboo water spout. After seeing him I wondered what else was in store and behold – Daigoji did not disappoint.

Hidden around corners and tucked away were smaller shrines and Buddhist statues all featuring in perfectly manicured grounds. One of the smaller shrines features chimes hanging at the entrance and they are in the shape of partially opened flowers. As it was raining – again – I snapped a picture and then a video of the water droplets falling from each of the chimes. If you haven’t seen it on Instagram – here it is:

After capturing this moment, I said goodbye to the guardian at the gate and headed back to Sas and the car. Naturally he was unimpressed and decided to go back to sleep. However.. it got me thinking. Are there any more guardians of the water and entrance to the temples and shrines around where we live or is it just a one off?

Challenge. Accepted!

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