Starting a new walk

Today I started a new walk. I planned to walk a long way and in the end I walked 13 kilometers before arriving home again. I began with the short walk to Hakataminami Station where I caught a bus going to the south. After about 20 minutes I got off at a stop named Yamada, the two kanji meaning mountain field. My plan was to cross the river and visit a temple and a shrine and then recross the river and visit the many temples and shrines on the other side that I would pass as I walked home.

 The river is Nakagawa, or the Naka River. At this time of year there is not much water in it, unless we have just had a typhoon or guerrilla rain.

 As I reached the end of the bridge, I realized that I could see the temple. However, it did not look like a typical temple. The white sign on the brown building in formed me that this was Hotokuji.

I climbed to the top of the river bank and stood in front of the temple. Except for the signs, it looked more like a store than a temple. As I stood there, I realized that I could hear chanting coming from inside. There was some sort of ceremony in progress.