Meiji-jingu and whole wheat!

This weekend I finally went to Meiji-jingu in Yoyogi-koen (a famous shrine in a big park). Its just a short walk from Harajuku station, so I decided to take advantage of the few rain-free hours that we had this weekend to check it out. To steal blatantly from Lonely Planet:

"Meiji-jingu is Tokyo's most splendid shrine...Completed in 1920, the shrine was built in memory of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shouken, under whose rule Japan ended its long isolation from the outside world. Unfortunately, like much else in Tokyo, the shrine was destroyed in the bombing at the end of WWII. Rebuilding was completed in 1958...unlike many of Japan's postwar reconstructions, it is altogether authentic. The shrine itself was built with Japanese cypress, while the cypress for the huge gates came from Alishan in Taiwan."

It was a beautiful shrine, and it was so nice to walk through the park and let the city sounds disappear for a while. The mix of people that I passed on my way through was also amazing; tourists speaking countless different languages, Japanese families, people headed to weddings, people sitting along the path eating ice cream, parents carrying their infants to the shrine on their 30th or 100th day after birth to visit for the first time... though my favorites were the handful of little kids (3-5ish) patiently standing in front of their parents, trying to learn how to properly approach the honden (main hall) enshrining the kami (god of the shrine)....really, really cute stuff.

So following are some pictures... I'll try to use them to give an idea of what big shrines look like, as well as how to visit one... hopefully I won't be too inaccurate...

This is the Oo-torii (really big shrine gate) that forms the entrance to the shrine-grounds. Standing 12 meters high, with a top cross-beam of 19 meters, this is the largest Myoujin-style gate in Japan, made from 1500-year old Taiwanese cypress pine trees. Its beautiful.

After walking through the torii but before walking into the shrine, you come upon a chouzuya (trough of water) where most people will stop to purify themselves before entering the shrine. I didn't take a picture, but there is running water with some ladles and a trough, over which you rinse one hand, then the other, then your mouth, each with a clean ladle of water.
This is the inside of the first doorway into the shrine. After walking through that little building you're standing in a big courtyard. To your left...
...you would see this. And straight ahead...
...you'd see this, the honden (main hall of worship).
...a closer, direct shot of the main hall of worship.
Once inside, throw 5 yen into one of these slots, ring the gong to summon the god, clap twice and pray (or is it the other way around?), bow and back away.
A picture of one of the half-dozen weddings taking place around the shrine (people were shamelessly taking pictures of everything, so I took one too... don't get married at the most famous shrine in Tokyo, in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, if you don't want your picture taken by strangers!)
A whole bunch of wooden ema (wooden votive plaques) on display. Visitors to the shrine can buy one of these and write a wish/prayer on the back and hang it with the others (I actually bought one and wrote a wish for the first time--it was simple and cheesy, so I'm not going to post it). A pretty stone bridge along the path to the shrine...it looked like a rainforest in there, so out place in the middle of Tokyo, a few hundred feet from a major intersection, but really really pretty.


I also tried to go to Daibutsu (the Great Buddha) in Kamakura (my second attempt) this weekend, but just like the first time, it poured all morning and on and off throughout the rest of the day...I'm starting to think that I'm doomed to never see it.


ooooh man... look at all of the whole wheat goodness, and what's that? HUMMUS? yes! good hummus? no. But hummus nonetheless. These treasures were way too expensive, but oh so worth it for the amount of happiness that they brought into my rainy week. Hooray for international grocery stores in Tokyo.