This picture was taken at the entrance of the Odawara Shrine, in the south western part of Kanagawa Prefecture(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odawara).

I have been told that a shrine is used for worshiping the different deities of the Shinto religion, which used to be a state religion in Japan. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto), whereas temples are mostly for those who practice Buddhism.