AMANOIWATO-JINJA SHRINE

Bathed by the Iwato River, the pretty shrine comprises a number of buildings, the main one, the Nishi hongū, being on the western bank. The Higashi hongū, as its name suggests, is on the east. It is exactly there, a fifteen-minute walk away, that the goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami, a mythical deity of the Shintō, took refuge. The environment of the shrine is truly wild, which gives the place a very appreciable mystical touch.