Today after a sudden rain shower I found myself at Gion station, and decided to check the site of yesterday's fire before making my way to work. There was a few temples I'd skipped past on the way to my destination last time that I wanted to revisit. So here we go, another photo tour: 

Fire Site & Surrounds

The site of yesterday's fire. There's a Temple pretty much next door, and another one over the fence behind the building.... seems my worries about old buildings being burnt down weren't completely unfounded.	The street with Jotenji I think.... anyway, where they'll be having one of the flags. I think. It's very green and tree-lined, one thing that's really nice about this area.
Next door, the lovely Sand Garden This place I think I've seen in brochures, it has one of those zen sand gardens that make you contemplate life and that. It's very small but looks exceedingly pretty, and again nicely maintained.	Some of the gardens. People were watching the fire from yonder balcony in that brown building.
Tortoise and Hare. These guys were really adorable... I'm sure they have some serious doctrine to teach us though.	Sand Garden Details They're quite nice... I remember reading somewhere that these sorts of gardens were meant to represent actual islands, land masses and forests in the sea. And somewhere else said they were eternity, or heaven, or everything in the world.... I'm not sure which applies to this particular garden, but it was very peaceful to look at even in the rain.

And after that, as the rain let up, I decided to walk straight to work. This next bit demonstrates just how many historical temples there are in the area... Right around the corner, for instance:

Myorakuji Temple!

Myoraku Temple! I think the sign explains it better than I could have. The old site for it btw was much closer to where the shoreline used to be, near where the Oiyama (main race) Yamakasa finishes in Nakasu.	Some Roof Shots. Perfect down to the last detail... The name "Myoraku" seems strange to me because, well, "Myou" means Strange... Raku means easy or fun. But I'm sure they have other meanings that are more appropriate for international diplomacy.
The fence and walk down to the parking lot. Actually a lot of the courtyard gates were closed, so none of the buildings were accessible. I'm not sure if it's a weekday thing or a rainy day thing or a "we're not open to the public" thing. That would be strange, seeing as they have a customer parking lot and all.	A bit of characteristic Hakata fort wall. It's cute that Hakata was known as the "Stone Wall" city (as the sign above says), because these walls really are popping up in all sorts of places. It's hard to think of anywhere in Japan as a fort that could withstand Mongol fleets and international invaders... probably because Edo was so quiet and so much importance is held on peace these days.
Further back, a little path leads to a cemetery. This place was really cute with little rock stepping stones all the way around what could have been the main Temple building (I was more interested in the path). Some of the graves looked very very old, and some had these natural-looking hewn rocks as the pillar which is a lot more exciting IMO than a slab.	Some more graves, with a neat ramshackle building I have a feeling this place houses some important ancient people's tombstones, because otherwise stepping stones aren't really the thing for a cemetery. Towards the back there were a lot of gilded lettered, proper new looking smooth granite type tombstones.
On the way out, a pagoda in the distance! Just how much more history can this place have??

This part of the journey over, I kept walking in a straight line towards my office, not seeking out history or anything, and then straight to my right along came...

Shofukuji Temple, the Home of Zen

Established in the 900s, this is the place that brought Zen and Tea to Japan. Zen... and Tea... to Japan. Can you get any more historically and culturally important?

The entrance way. As is right for a Zen temple, the first thing you see is an extensive garden.	And the fence & Street Outside. The grounds of this place are quite large...
Lettering under the Gate It's all cool and swishy.... but the photo is blurry.	Some lush green gardens. There's a lot of "sub gardens" on the grounds that *I'm assuming* express various aspects of the Zen mentality.
A second entrance, used for special occasions Come to think of it every Temple I've been to so far has had one.... I'm guessing that's what they're for.	Some more of those fort walls Yasee?
Building to the side with lake and garden There were planks of wood and the building was fenced off, so I'm guessing the place is being repaired.	Lovely garden. Here you can contemplate eternity.
Bridge detail	Building from the side
Entrance to main Temple This is where the map says Shofukuji actually starts. Sadly it was closed off, but the garden was plenty nice to look at.	Under construction... Looks like some extensive repairs were going on next door to the main Temple. These buildings do actually look their age... that looks like brand new wood being used in there though...

That covers about 7 major Shrines & Temples in the Hakata area, 6 of which are in Gokusho machi (if you count popping in to the Udon & Soba place). I had a look at the Google Maps page today... the entire row of blocks is LITTERED with Temple marks. I'm quite keen on going to the old sea-edge of town, as I've heard there's a lot of sea-based dieties enshrined along there.

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Yamakasa is kicking off tomorrow morning, with volunteers out in the streets at about 6 in the morning putting up official markers and flags and things, designating the route as an important and sacred place. Then in the afternoon the assembled Kazariyama around town will be revealed to the public, and I believe at about 5pm the team designated as first in the runnings (Nishi-Nagare or West Stream) will be heading to some of the aforementioned "seaside" shrines to have their carrying ropes and equipment blessed. 

This, I'm told, is ALSO done at a run. So sure is my manager of this that he's been asking around the office for bicycles to borrow to follow the action in and out of old Hakata town. 

Every other team will do the shrine run on the 9th, in just over a week's time (if my memory serves me correctly). 

By the way: This is the street I was walking along, also a big part of the Yamakasa course. You can see just how tight this is to run through.... I hear that the power poles and other lampposts will be padded during events to protect the runners as it's very hard to avoid bumping into such obstacles when you're running with a one-ton float on your shoulders.

These are some of the ubiquitous powerlines that you see in most off-centre streets all around Japan. They're really really dense and some of them are fairly low... imagine trying to get 4-5 storeys of doll through these. No wonder they had to downsize...

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So that's all for today! There's a few other topics I want to cover in detail but I might do that separate. From tomorrow, Yamakasa begins...!