This was our first visit to Yamaguchi prefecture and this was top of our list of must sees. After changing trains three times from Shin Yamaguchi, we arrived at the local station, together with a young Vietnamese girl, who suggested sharing a taxi. The driver warned us not to get too excited, as the shrine was much smaller than we might expect from the pictures. He suggested 30 minutes was probably adequate for our visit, but we decided to reserve him for our return trip two hours later. Why people wax lyrical about this place is beyond me. I tend to agree with our Aussie reviewer, that this is a pale imitation of the magnificent Fushimijinja of Kyoto. The tori are so fragile in comparison. Its seaside location gives it a photogenic charm, but it is not impressive. In mid April, there were not many tourists, so our visit did not exceed the 30 minutes suggested by our taxi driver. Unfortunately, there is little commercial exploitation of the site. The restaurant was closed as it had run out of food. The tiny snack bar sold us a couple of melon sodas and a portion of takoyaki to keep us going until the return of our taxi.

We visited here on a bright cold day .The Tori Gates looked very bright as they wound their way up the hill to the very new and sterile looking area at the top . At the bottom near the ocean it is a bit exciting as you watch the waves pounding the rocks The lovely red Tori Gates look inviting with a promise of something great at the top, we were expecting a old historic shrine but no . After walking through the 100 plus sponsored Gates and up the many steps there is very little of interest there The area/ shrine seems to be about a fox, maybe it is to pray to be clever like a fox It is a lovely bit of coastline, worth going for the view. I don't think there is anything historic or religious about this site, I could be wrong and stand to be corrected