Day 9 Part 5 - Nara (奈良) Tamukeyama Hachimangu Shrine (手向山八幡宮)

This is a shrine just down the road from Sangatsudou, and created to protect the Toudaiji. There aren't a lot of information about this shrine either in tourist brochures or on the Internet, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Side entrance from the Sangatsudou:

Another inquisitive deer checked us out:

The water house:

The shrine gate:

Various buildings in the shrine:

Beautiful stone lanterns:

The shrine main entrance:

Souvenirs for sale:

Outside the shrine:

Lion sculpture:

As we exited the shrine, we walked down the path towards the Kasuga Taisha Shrine (春日大社), and passed through a very pretty wooded area:

I remember there was a toilet near here which I used, and a vending machine next to the toilet that served hot coffee. We were so hungry we bought the hot coffee (it came in a can which the machine heated up prior to serving) - it tasted a lot better than I expected, or perhaps it was the hunger that made me like it.