Goal: Osaka Taisha Shrine
Left HQ at 9am. Tried taking JR Kobe line to Sumiyoshi and ended up in a different area. Ugh. Apparently, meant to go to Tennoji and catch a street car (tram) to Osaka's Sumiyoshi. Oh. Hyperdia the website gave me the wrong one. Hence you will not see it well described in subway or railway maps.
An old lady started a conversation with us but I couldn't understand a word she said, also I was conflicted about chatting on trains, since everyone was silent. Sigh.
The shrine is located in Tennoji area. South exit of JR Tennoji station, passing Station Plaza, go outside, go on a foot bridge, turn right, and go down a flight of stairs. You should see two narrow platforms and a ticket window. ¥200 one way.
The shrine has three bridges. Two stone bridges. Stone rails acted as seating for crowd of thousands. Then there is this one very round and perched high wooden bridge. They have installed wooden stairs on it, so people can easily cross over, as it is very curvy. This bridge is the entrance to the shrine main grounds. Thank god for crowd control staff to guide everyone.
Preceding each bridge was food and gaming stalls. There were tea house and ramen stalls with seating too. Interesting ones were the haunted house (¥500), cartoon house (¥500), and archery (¥300 for 3 arrows). Kiddy games were about fishing out objects from icy water.
Once you are inside the main grounds, you are greeted with three honden buildings. Thousands of people were throwing coins into the box outside each honden. So did Sis and I. So much fun. You can buy lucky dip divination papers (including a tiny talisman) and write your wish on the paper, then hang it on the long row of strings or tree branches. We didn't do it. The queues were long and our feet were sore by then. However, I did line up for omamori.
Returned to JR Tennoji station. Here we decided to check out Station Plaza as every other major city shops were closed until 2nd of January 2011. Nearly every floor was aimed at young ladies only two floors were for men. Hee hee. Cheap shoes and ladies tops. Jackets were pricy. Not bad. This is a different side of Tennoji, we did not see when we came by last time.
Dinner at Mos burger in Shin Osaka.
