Ian's photos 8

This temple had a new construction with a roofed area that extended from one of the buildings and then returned to it, creating an inner area. The roofed area had some benches where pilgrims could rest. Ian and I took off our packs and enjoyed the inner garden (in the following picture) and then complete our ritual for the temple.

This temple also had a nice bell tower and Ian took this picture of it.
On the hill behind the temple there was a small pagoda. One way to tell a pagoda from other buildings, when you can not see the actual shape, is the long extension rising from the roof. It is both symbolic in that the parts are meaningful, if you are in the know so that you can meditate on them, but also it acts as a lightening rod. In the past many temples were struck by lightening and destroyed by the resulting fire, so now they normally have lightening rods to protect them - they seem to work better than the warrior kings at the gates for keeping the electric spirits out.
This was extremely unusual. It is a Shinto torii, the structure that normally forms the gate to the shrine grounds. In this case, it was less than knee high - compare it to the flowers, and the sign is the name of the next temple.