Heading to a match at Osaka’s Hanazono Rugby Stadium?
There’s a shrine (Yoshita Kasuga Shrine) dedicated to rugby near the stadium where players & fans of the local team Kintetsu Liners pray for success on the field – if you make a detour en route to the stadium you can do the same for your team!
The usual shrine fixtures of a torii entrance gate, stone lion guardians, and inner sanctum are supplemented with carvings of rugby balls and various other touches of rugby-themed flair on the grounds.
It’s a small shrine tucked away along a quiet suburban street, to get there search for ‘Kasuga Shrine Higashi Osaka’ on Google Maps. You could also try navigating using the area map at Higashi Hanazono train station:
It’s in the lower right of grid C1, marked in red, roughly a 10-minute walk from the stadium – as long as you don’t get lost anyway, the streets are a bit of a maze around there!