Ryuhoji

 Maybe these tracks in the concrete were left by one of the foxes, which may go out wandering when no one is around.

 Behind the 13-level pagoda and the stature you can see the plastic sheets surrounding the oldest of the buildings in the compound, currently undergoing repairs and reconstruction.

 The statue in more detail.

 A small building near the gate. As we were leaving, I noticed the carvings up under the eaves.

 We left Ryuhoji and returned to the main street where we entered a restaurant. It was very small, only three tables, but it has a very good reputation. The main item on the menu is katsu, pork covered in breadcrumbs and deep fat fried. It was delicious. The decor was rather old fashion and it looked like there has been no remodeling for years. The feel of the place was enhanced by this radio.

Our guest, who bought the meal for us (thank you, again) leaving the restaurant. The large picture illustrates the primary dish on the menu, katsu with a large pile of thinly sliced cabbage, Both are eaten with a soy sauce and sesame based sauce.

Ryuhoji

 If you remember, we were escorting a guest, the father of an Australian friend, and he had little experience in Japan. We stopped here in front of the bell tower and were talking about Buddhism and temples.  The idea of Shinto shrines came up since we had just visited one. We told him that shrines and temples were often collocated. He found this a bit surprising, Christianity's relationship to other religions. We suggested that he turn around and look at the red objects in the distance.

 A closer look revealed, a Shinto shrine on the raised area next to the main hall of the temple.

 This is the entrance to the main hall.

 This is a view of the pagoda from the back.

 You can see that the structure of the roof is similar to that of most temples.

We walked toward the Shinto shrine to let our guest get a better look at it, and of course, to see if for ourselves. When we got close enough, we saw a crow having lunch on the offering of rice that had been placed in front of the shrine, probably by the Buddhist priests who run the temple.

Ryuhoji

 We walked into the grounds, passed the pagoda and saw the fountain where you are supposed to purify yourself before going further.

 As usual the water came out of the mouth of a dragon.

 It was a very ferocious looking dragon, so I was sure that the water would be pure.

 After washing our hands, we proceeded deeper into the grounds and found this Buddha, or maybe a Bodhisattva. There was an offering of an orange and some water. Someone had placed a red cloth hat and bib on the statue but it had long since been bleached almost white by the sun.

 This round stone statue was quite impressive. The plaque says "pile of flowers" or something like that. As often happens I have no idea what it refers to.

Just before arriving at what appeared to be the main building there was another group of stonework. I know that the objects that the Buddha/Bodhisattva carries tell us who he is but I do not know much of the symbolism.

Hachiman Jingu and Ryuhoji

 Here is another wish. This one is for the Sendai professional baseball team, the Rakuten Eagles, to come in first this year. The plea was not very effective. The team came in fourth out of the six teams in their division.

 This is the sign over the door to a men's room. It is the outline of a man wearing a kimono covered by hakuma, a pants like arrangement that covers the kimono and is now worn only on formal occasions.

 This is the women's room. It is a woman wearing a kimono.

We had now been all the way around the grounds and had seen at least the outside of all the buildings. We decided it was time to leave and took a side exit, just to see where it went.

 As we walked down a narrow backstreet, we sat the roof of a pagoda. A quick look at a map told us that this was Ryuhoji, the dragon treasure temple. Since we had plenty of time, we decided to find the entrance and explore some more.

 A short walk brought us to the main gate. There were no guardian kings but maybe because it is next door to Hachiman Jingu, a shrine dedicated to the God of War, they felt that no more protection was needed.

The first building inside the grounds was this very nice two story pagoda. It looked fairly new, or at least in excellent and recent repair.