There are two main types of religious buildings in Japan, temples and shrines. Shrines (jinja, or jinguu after a name) are for Shinto dieties, while temples (otera, or ji after a name) are Buddhist. Japan has many of both, sometimes with them being right next to each other or even one inside of the other! There are some general differences in construction, which you can read more about here. But the easiest way to tell them apart is that a shinto shrine will always have a torii gate at the very entrance.
Okay, enough about the general characteristics, let's look at the temples and shrines I visited!
Takano Tenman-gu 高野天満宮
The first stop on my trip was Takano Tenmangu, a shinto shrine. The deity of this shrine is Tenjin, a kami of scholarship and learning. There are many famous temples dedicated to him, but this is just one of the smaller shrines. Shrines dedicated to Tenjin are often called Tenman-gu (天満宮). A large camphor tree next to the shrine is estimated to be over 800 years old.