Two of Japan's religions: Shinto and Baseball

My first day here I woke early to do the first thing on my list: learn of Japan's religions. About a 30 minute drive from the apartment is a city named Dazaifu, the location of the Tenman-gū Shinto shrine. This was not a very peaceful place on this specific day. There were shit-load of children there for field trips so it was fairly loud and I don't feel I got the full experience. Not like I could have anyway since everything at this location is in Japanese characters and the only semi-English speaking guide had the day off. Just behind the temple was the Kyūshū National Museum, again the only tour guide was gone so we didn't waste the 2750 yen to get in.

This structure is called a Torii. These Japanese gates are used to mark the entrances of Shinto temples.

Just behind the temple was this area with ponds of Koi fish and some had turtles. Give you an idea of how green this country is.

The country worships something other than the many gods of the Shinto religion, and that's Baseball. Later in the day, I walked to the Yahoo! dome from the apartment, it's only a 20 minute walk. I wanted to make sure I had the route to the stadium down since I would be walking there many times during this trip. I also wanted to get a feel of the process to getting into the stadium and the crowds.

More on Baseball tomorrow. The Match-up: Fukuoka Softbank Hawks vs. Seibu Lions at 2 PM. Seibu Lions have the best record in the entire league. Starting Pitcher for Softbank: D.J. Houlton - Lions are going down.