Seeing iris festival at Miyajidake Shrine

On Wednesday, we had decided to take a drive to see iris in bloom at Miyajidake Shrine, Fukutsu, Fukuoka. The shrine's annual iris festival (菖蒲まつり shobu-matsuri) will be held between May 31 and June 10, with 100 species, of 50000 pieces of iris flowers has been planted.

A Romon (楼門) tower gate with lion-dogs in the background.

The hall of worship. There are some pieces of iris flowers in front of the hall which was moved from the Edo iris garden.

Going through the inner path, we came to the Edo iris garden.

The gasshō-zukuri (合掌造り) styled houses are currently under repair.

The Kagiya (鉤屋) styled minka houses have been saved in Shizen-koen (自然広苑) open-air museum where examples from Ogori city are kept on display.

Carps in Misogi-ike (禊池) pond.

Ducks went up and looking for something to eat.

A distant view of Mount Tachibana (立花山) from a small observation platform.

Before going back to parking lot, I want to climb the stairs approaching to the shrine where Ainoshima (相島) Island on the Sea of Genkai is visible. When I went up the stairs and took a look back there, I could see a long straight road continues until the sea. Here is famous for the sunset going down on the extension of the approach to a shrine twice a year, in late February and late October.
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. I found a great photo on wiki, so I put it into my blog.

After that we went to Miyajihama Beach. It's a short away from the shrine, about 5 minutes by car.