Naminoue Shrine
Just a short walk from Naminoue Beach is Naminoue Shrine. It’s a Shinto shrine that has history. But what attracts the average visitor to this shrine is probably not so much its history but more so the epic pictures they’ve come across online.
The funny thing is that it’s rather difficult to get these epic photos. And you won’t realize this until you’re actually here at Naminoue Shrine.
That aside, it’s still worth the visit if you’re in the area. Expect your visit to be brief, though as the shrine is small or at least whatever you’re allowed to see is minimal.
Wanting to see as much as I could of the shrine, I decided to enter a part of the shrine. My desire to enter this part of the shrine partially had to do with me seeing others going in and out of the building beforehand. I also had seen visitors on the “balcony” of this building and just wanted to go onto the “balcony”, too. I wanted to find out what type of view the balcony offered. But as the only traveler entering the building at the time, I decided it was in my best interest to not open the doors to the balcony. I thus purposely made my shrine interior visit brief.
There were some artisitc items on display but I unfortunately didn’t understand their significance.
I did catch sight of stairs and was tempted to find out where these stairs would lead me to but decided against exploring.
The thing I wanted to do most, though was to find a way to the very back of the shrine. But I doubt that random visitors are allowed access to the back of the shrine. After all, the back overlooks the ocean and visitors could potentially hurt themselves, something I’m sure the shrine would rather not have to deal with.
Regardless, if language wasn’t a barrier, I might have had the nerve to ask if I could visit the very back of the shrine and partake in the view. Maybe. Just maybe.
Staff of the shrine seemed pleasant. If anything, they’re used to foreign visitors. I mean, the shrine even has a cutout board where you can pretend to be dressed in Okinawan clothing. (As much as I wanted to take advantage of this cutout board, I didn’t. With the coronavirus present, I didn’t want to approach anyone and didn’t want anyone to touch my phone, either.)
Prior to leaving Naminoue Shrine, I decided to purchase a charm. A love charm. The irony behind this is that I wasn’t really looking for love. I mean, I figured if I were to run into the right person, it’d be great but it wasn’t all that necessary either. I was after all content with being single.
The charm wasn’t cheap but I managed to justify my reasons to purchase it. Aside from the charm being cute, I liked how it represented Okinawa in some way. On the charm was an Okinawan girl and an Okinawan guy. Initially, I thought the girl and guy were sewn onto the “balls” and was a little disheartened to learn that they weren’t sewn onto the “balls”. However, I’ve come to learn that sewing onto the balls would have been impossible as the fabric/paper used to wrap the balls are rather thin. Another thing I’ve come to learn about this charm is that it’s quite heavy for a charm. The “balls” have a nice weight to them and interestingly enough, I like this about the charm.
While I’m not familiar with every charm that’s offered by each Shinto shrine throughout Japan, I found this love charm to be unique. Unique thanks to the Okinawan touches and unique for not being a rectangular sachet.
A little after purchasing the charm, I went back to Naminoue Beach to get some additional me time. If you remember my beach post on how there was a bunch of “single” guys sitting near me, unbeknownst to me, I strongly believe it all had to do with this charm. Yes, don’t take religious items for granted, folks as they can be very real. Sure, it could have just been pure coincidence but it could have also been some form of extra oomph from the charm itself.
Love charm, thank you for showing that you’re legit but I have a tendency to lean towards team single… 😉
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