At Hotokuji

 The main building is on the left and on the right there is what looks like a small doorless shed. The banners in front contain a mantra, a short phrase that is repeatedly chanted. I don't recall seeing this one before and I am not sure how to pronounce it, but I know it is a mantra because of the first two characters that spell out the Sanskrit word meaning 'praise'.

 Inside the shed I found a Buddha statue and fresh flowers. I wanted to look around some more but I did not want to disturb whatever was going on inside.

Back out on the road but facing in the opposite direction from when I came up the bank, I saw that there was a statue of Shinran and a large sign giving the name of the temple. It also says that this is the Shingon sect, an esoteric Mahayana sect. There most impressive ceremony is when they burn wooden sticks with words written on them. The fire is increased by the constant application of oil. The monk sits in front of the altar with the fire in a container between him and the altar. He chants sutras as he reads the writing, usually just a couple of kanji, and then tosses them in the fire. I have seen videos of this sort of ceremony but I would like to attend one in person sometime.

I retraced my steps back to the riverside and turned right headed for the Shinto shrine that is shown on my maps.

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.

Construction at Mirikaroden

 There used to be a fountain inside the circular depression. You can see some parts of it on the left. This is in the open area in front of the main entrances into Mirikaroden, where I take classes.

 From the fountain the water ran down this artificial stream and into a drain in the distance. I believe that they have removed it because of a lack of water. Fukuoka city is constantly short of water and much of what they have comes from dams in the mountains south of my town. Last year we toured the site of a new dam but it won't be ready for another year or two. The town is promoting water conservation so it would be a bit of a problem if they were 'wasting' water on a fountain that very few people see. I have no idea why they spent the money to remove it when they could just as well left it in place. However, I am sure that the construction companies are glad for the business.

Some Flowers

Along the riverside, I discovered a large clump of very interesting flowers.

Moving closer, they looked like this

Up very close, I could see that each 'flower' was actually a group of flowers. I was very surprised since each of these two 'flowers' was less than an inch in diameter, so this entire picture shows an area only about 3 inches in width and slightly more than 2 inches in height.