In the far north of the main island Honshu is the city of Aomori which lives a peaceful, simple life – not bothered too much by tourism and business people, yet still quite vibrant and charming. It is far quieter, more rural, but somehow more real as well – a kind of backwater Japan in a good sense.

As soon as leave the city you will enter rural landscape – the rice chamber of Japan of old. Streets get very narrow and sometimes you have to really look hard to find a road at all – well, technically it is there, just so overgrown by the almost djungle around you (24°C and 90% humidity does the trick…)

Spread throughout are small shrines and temples which are very often quite unique and all have their very own charm.

Must have been old storage devices which were later used in a more decorative way.

I liked that wall especially

Like wine stacks – one tube for one image

very welcoming. Hopefully the sign doesn’t mean you have to clean before you are allowed to enter…

This one seems really old

It was already quite late and dark so the light got greenish

I love these old devotional places – they are so much more real than the stylish posh temples of Kyoto which mostly have representative characters.

A house for the ghosts

And the local graveyard

More ghosts

another shrine on the way – already very late in the evening

And one alongside the road behind rice fields

The entrance gates (doji) are always fascinating for me

As are the paths to the temple with all the figurines.

Wonderful images

Looks like little hats

And the dragon mask over the entrance to the inner shrine