Hair Imagine Shinto Shrine
The Tenso Jinja Shinto Shrine near our apartment frequently has festivals. Lanterns are strung up for the occasion. Not that I ever saw another foreigner there, but a foreigner who couldn’t read Japanese would probably look at the lanterns as rather exotic and quite cool with the Japanese characters and all. As I mentioned before, though, such lanterns are just advertisements.
The ad for the lantern on the far right, for instance, is for ヘアーイマジン (Hair Imagine), probably a local hair salon. Next to it is 一風堂 (Ippudo), a ramen restaurant. They actually have Ippudo Ramen in New York now. Hopefully it spreads across the country and one opens in my town. See, the advertising worked! 😉