A few years ago a travel programme broadcast a story about the festival of Tagata Honen Sai in Inuyama, Nagoya and pictured the shrine to Izanagi, the shinto God of Male Fertility. I remember being very surprised that a giant phallus got shown around the area on the 15th March every year. There's a huge procession and parade featuring women carrying wooden phallic shaped symbols. So, even though I was in Japan in September, I was going to go and see the shrine anyway.

I recently had the opportunity of talking with a government representative from one of the cultural preservation departments who said that there are actually a large number of things for tourists in Nagoya and more are being built all the time, it is just that there isn't that many near the train station! Hmm, I should have done my research before I went there! I was strongly recommended to check out their new spaceship bus terminal which is turning heads all over Central Honshu.

Tagata Jinja is definitely one of the places you should see outside of Nagoya.

It's a short walk from Tagata-Jinja-Mae (the nearby train station which is about 30 minutes from Nagoya) and the station master will happily give you directions.

You'll see the Torii in stone with English signs leading you in. Go through the torii, walk to the end where the souvenir store is and turn left. You'll see a wall of wooden plaques with phallic drawings and messages hanging from it. Walk to the end to see the shrine filled with phallic shapes.

On the left of this is a much smaller shrine surrounded by phallus fence posts and phallus sculptured rocks.

Come back the way you went in and turn left, you'll see the very large 2 metre, 60kg phallus used in the festival.

This place is extremely interesting if for no other reason than there isn't anywhere else like it in the world. You can even buy souvenirs!

 So I bought a bracelet with a phallus and a ball hanging from it.

If you want to have children but are having 'trouble' the shrine is there for you to pray to the God of fertility so that your problems go away, if you're a man.

This is actually a great idea as a lot of men suffer from psychological scarring or extreme stress that could prevent them from fathering a child. Putting their faith in a fertility god should help them reduce the effects of such problems. (As drinking has been proven to reduce the amount of swimmers a guy has, then spending some time at a shrine might mean less time drinking too!)

And, if you're a woman, there's a fertility shrine in Inuyama for you too, but if you believe it is your husband's problem, then you're welcome to pray here for him.

For tourists, the best time to go would definitely be the 15th of March, for the festival. It is also around that time that Sakura season starts - Cherry blossom season.

So, if you're in Nagoya and have seen all the sites, take a train change and trip to Inuyama's Takata Jinja. Definitely worth a visit.

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