We set off fairly early for the Zenko-Ji temple complex near Nagano in order to arrive before the crowds - a wise decision because we got a decent parking place (free) and   wandered around before it got too hot. This complex is the biggest we have ever seen (and we have seen some fairly big ones) with the biggest temples we have ever seen (ditto) - very spectacular and most pleasing.

 This complex had an unusually large shop where people queued so that professional calligraphers could write an elegant message on and then stamp papers or pages in a specially-bought book. The calligraphers seemed to charge   about £20 for a page of beautiful work and the books were a similar price. So if you are coming to Japan you may want to buy one of these books early in your trip. Most destinations have their own unique rubber stamp and you might like to collect them.

Salmon - the main gate

Straw shoes at the main gate - no, I don't know why.

Main gate seen from Daikanjin temple

Huge incense burner and health and good fortune will be the result of rubbing the smoke on your body. Sheila is hoping her premium bonds come up as a result of this visit.

Another nice drain cover

Here were a set of very fine Bodhisattvas who are beings that delay Buddhood to save living beings.  According to the leaflet they each attend  one of the six worlds after death - hell, starvation, beasts, carnage, human beings and heavenly beings, which are the worlds through which  souls must pass. 

There are many temples and shrines but one of them seemed to have another purpose as we saw families and young children posing for some formal family photos.Possibly something else was going to happen after the photos but never got to see what happened next.
The children - mostly girls, were dressed traditionally, even down to the little wooden shoes.