Motonosumi Shrine

Motonosumi Shrine sits high on the Nagato coast of Yamaguchi, where a chain of 123 vermilion torii runs down the clifftop toward the open Sea of Japan. The gates stand close together in a line well over a hundred metres long, and the sight has made the shrine one of the most photographed places in western Japan.

The shrine dates to 1955. As the story goes, a white fox came to a local fishing captain in his sleep and told him to build a shrine to it on this headland – so he did. Foxes are the messengers of Inari, the deity of harvest and good fortune, and the blessings sought here follow from that: success in business, full nets and safe seas, a good marriage, healthy children, safe travel. The gates themselves were added later, given one by one across a decade from 1987.

The shrine's signature oddity is where it keeps its offering box. Instead of resting at ground level, it sits atop the six-metre gate at the entrance, several metres overhead – so leaving an offering means lobbing a coin up and hoping it lands inside. Manage it, the saying goes, and your wish is granted. Unsurprisingly, it has a name as one of the toughest offering boxes in the country.

Where the gates end at the cliff's edge, look out for the Ryugu no Shiofuki, a natural blowhole that throws up plumes of white spray through a gap in the rocks whenever the surf is strong.

There's no train or regular bus to the shrine itself. A car is the natural choice – about an hour from the Mine interchange, with parking at the gates. The easiest carless option is a seasonal day-tour bus from Shin-Yamaguchi Station, and the fallback is a train to Nagato-Furuichi or Hitomaru Station followed by a 20-minute taxi.