Beach Inari Shrine in Yamaguchi Prefecture

We went camping in Yamaguchi Prefecture over the weekend with the goal of visiting this unique shrine in Nagato City.

Motonosumi Inari Jinjya is like Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, in that it has a tunnel of red torii gates. I read that they are mostly from the parent shrine in Shimane Prefecture (Daikodani Inari Jinjya) and that there are 123 gates total.

The Inari part means that there will be kitsune or fox images because Oh-Inari-sama (a fox god) is protecting the shrine. At the entrance gate, there are a couple foxes painted on boards with a hole cut for faces as a photo opportunity. There are also little fox statues near the shrine and decorating the upper gate. 

The view of the gates against the lush plants during summer and the ocean is really beautiful.

We read a sign saying if you can get your coins into the offering box at the upper gate, your wish will come true. The offering box is supposedly the most difficult in all of Japan to make an offering in. It's mounted at the top of the gate. I didn't know that at the time and didn't make an offering, but two of my friends could finally do it in the end.

There were a lot of jokes about how the staff could take the money out of the offering box and how often they had to bother collecting it. Getting one yen in is almost impossible because the coins are so light, but heavier coins are easier - especially on very windy days like when we were there! Anyway, there is a much lower box (on the right in the photo) which I referred to as the 'give up' box.

There isn't an entrance fee, but if you drive there, using the parking lot is 300 yen for an hour. It's long enough for most visits, but an additional hour is 100 yen. I saw buses in the area, so public transportation is probably an option.

We even saw some shrine character "Torii-neko" goods at the nearby convenience store, but not at the shrine itself. I think the gift shop was closed / not open yet because we went early on a Sunday.