Tennouji visit part one: Shitennouji temple

Howdy!
So, my classes at Osaka university have started. Long gone are the carefree lie-ins and spur of the moment exploring...
Classes are fun, but pretty busy. We're still in the 'induction' phase where you go to as many classes as possible to try and see what you want to do. Which for me, is all of them! There are too many interesting classes here!
That was a long tangent, sorry.
Also just a warning, this post is a little picture-heavy.

Anyway, the first weekend I was free, I wanted to go to Tennouji, as it was an area of Osaka I hadn't been to before.
It's really cool to visit, guys! It feels really spacious, and there are a lot of beautiful temples hidden amongst the skyscrapers, such as Shitennouji. There is also a zoo, and a couple of department stores including the tallest building in Japan, Abeno Harukas (Pictures of that in another post later).

You can get to Tennouji by train or by subway (it's on the Midosuji line)

 That building on the left is Abeno Harukas. It wouldn't fit in the shot...

 Tennouji has a kind of spacious vibe.

In the background, is Tsutenkaku tower! We went there the other week when we went to Shinsaibashi the other week. The view is amazing, and it's only 500 yen.

Shitennouji entrance:

 Surprise turtles!

I don't know if you can tell just from the photos, but even on a Saturday, Shitennouji wasn't so crowded. It was very relaxing to just walk around in the trees and the wide open spaces. I mean, the last temples I visited were Kiyomizu-dera and Yasaka Jinja in Kyoto during silver week, so anything would feel quiet in comparison....

You could visit the 宝物館 (Treasure room) for 300 yen, but no photos were allowed because it was basically a museum with really old artefacts in it. We're talking Nara period onwards here (around ad 700) so some of the artefacts were super old! There were huge statues of Amida Buddha, and ceremonial drums, and beautiful handwritten scrolls. The range was from the Nara period right through to around the '60s. If you get the chance, it is so worth it.

There was also an example of Kare Sansui (Zen rock or raked gravel gardens) which I was so psyched about. It was picture perfect.

 You can't tell from most of my photos, but right next to Shitennouji is just normal apartments and stuff.

 The roofs in traditional Japanese architecture are so beautiful.

That's it for Shitennouji, I have some more shrine/temple pictures in the next post! 

We visited some more smaller shrines and temples around the Tennouji area.

Thanks for reading! 

-Amy xoxo