In Hirakata city, there is a Shinto shrine a short walk away from the Kansai Gaidai campus. When talking about traditional Japanese places, there are two types that come to mind - jinja, or the Shinto shrine, and tera, the Buddhist temple.

This specific shrine worships the Shinto gods Susanoo-no-mikoto and Kudarao-gami. Susanoo is one of the most well known Shinto deities, being a sibling of the sun goddess Amaterasu and a son of Izanagi, one of the major creation deities. Susanoo is a god primarily governing storms, the sea, and summer, while Kudarao-gami is a god of the land. The shrine was named after Kudarao-gami as well, likely to distinguish it as compared to the popularly worshipped Susanoo. When entering the shrine through the torii gate, one must walk directly through the middle. The torii gate indicates that you are entering a sacred place, and the middle of the path is reserved for the gods. Traditionally, one is supposed to cleanse themselves from a well after entering, but unfortunately it wasn't available due to COVID-19 policies. Instead, I moved directly to the main building in order to make an offering. The proper order to make an offering is 1. Throw your offering into the offering box. This is often done with 5 yen coins. 2. Bow deeply twice. 3. Clap slowly twice. 4. Bow deeply once. Ideally, I'd like to go back if I can to write an ema, which is the name for the wishes tied up for the gods to receive, and maybe get a chance to wash in the well. I'm also looking forward to seeing a Buddhist temple to compare the two.

Keywords: Japan Osaka Kyoto Okinawa Kansai Gaidai University 

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