More steps?!?! Isaniwa shrine

Our day in Matsuyama was thankfully less rainy than on our trip to Dogo Onsen the night before.

Another trolley ride, back towards the onsen.

This little choo choo was behind us! Sadly we couldn't get on it.

But this time we went past a statue of Masaoka Shiki.

He not only brought about the advancement of reform in modern literature,  but was a high school baseball player who wrote poetry about the sport and was responsible for creating Japanese words for many baseball terms.

Down the street we found ourselves at the bottom of a steep flight of stone stairs. At the top was our destination, Isaniwa Shrine.

If I ever start a religion, there will be a law that all temples must be on flat ground.

I made it!

Isaniwa, a Shinto shrine, is dedicated to Hachiman, patron of warriors

Now we traverse the steps down

 After catching our breath, we headed over to visit another temple (more in my next post) but here's some interesting stuff I saw along the way.

Frank translating haiku 

I liked the purple flowers growing on the side of the building 

I always confuse which flowers these are

Passed thru the corner of a cemetery 

Is this Jesus?