Abeno Shrine (阿部野神社)

In the spirit of the New Year, I thought I might share some pictures of a nearby (well, not so nearby... it took my awhile to walk there) shrine I decided to explore.

A lot of us are usually so caught up in the bigger, more tourist-filled shrines and temples, that we often forget about the ones in our own neighbourhood. I hope if you have the time, this might motivate you to walk out, get some exercise, and explore a bit of your own "backyard" so to speak!

Compared to another more famous shrine nearby, the Abeno Seimei Shrine (which, if you play that wretched, time consuming, soul-sucking game "Onmyoji", the name Abe no Seimei is probably familiar to you), Abeno Shrine is a comparatively much bigger shrine complex.

I would go as far as to say that it is probably just slightly smaller than another close-ish (and much more well-known) shrine, Sumiyoshi Taisha. I was quite surprised as how much I got to explore here.

Since it was hatsumode period, I expected it to be a bit crowded. But since it was the 2nd day of the new year, I suppose most people still decided to go on the 1st day. I wasn't met with too much of a crowd at all.

Markers were put on the ground, and most people followed the markers pretty well. There was one asshat behind the man in the red coat that decided to breathe behind his back... but overall, the crowd was only 3-5 people deep.

After praying to my gods (whomever they were), I followed a path behind the main complex to smaller worship alters.

There were a few people in front of me there, and we all kept a nice distance away from each other:

I followed the path away from the main complex, and found a small garden. This seems to be where people would have their traditional wedding ceremonies. But as there were currently none, it seems like they were just using it for self-promotion!

Once I finished looping around the garden, I saw a small Inari Shrine... Perhaps a sister shrine to the Fushimi sect of Inari Shrines?

As I circled around the Inari Shrine, I noticed that there are various fox statues each representing an animal in the Zodiac. I thought that was pretty neat!

Finally, before going home - have to draw a fortune first!

Thanks for reading!