About Frogs and Gods

The coolest place I have visited (so far) was the frog shrine. I took about 120 pictures there. It is nestled in a suburb in Ogoori. One minute you are on a road, the next you enter the shrine.

Shrine is a deceptive word. It is more like a park. You walk in and there are rows of little stone frogs along a wall greeting you. People leave money on them for good luck. There is some green bushes on your side. As you go further along the path you start to encounter LARGE statues of Gods and Frogs. Some are angry, some are funny (to me).

You turn and are in a densly wooded area. There are statues both big and little in all the green. You go through woods and find different shrines. We went in three of them. It feels like you are in a whole new world. You can go into the shrines.

There are bells to ring, incense to burn, and even some trinkets to buy. The funny thing is that there are not workers that you ever see. In the area where you buy frog trinkets, it is done on the honor system. You take what you want and leave the anount of money you think is worth the item.

One of the shrines was rather large and we went exploring in it. Toshi liked to ring the big bell in front of the shrines. He also liked to put money in the donation box (in the shrines). He would take money off of the frogs and drop it in the box. It was cute.

I can`t quite describe the beauty or size of the shrine. It looks so little from the outside. However, I will post several pics at my Frog PhotoBucket Site. Please visit it.

You may need a fast internet connection. I uploaded a lot of photos.