One of the main things to go and look at in Japan are the shrines. They are quite beautiful although I am starting to get a little “shrined out”. Still nothing beats wandering around some part of a city and then discovering a shrine in a nice little quiet quarter of the city.

One of the major shrines is Senso-ji in Asakusa. This is a Buddhist shrine. Generally speaking each shrine consists of a gate (or several if a big shrine) and one big shrine. Quite often there are other little shrines about the place too (including Shinto shrines). This is the main gate of Senso-ji:

As you can see the place is rather busy. This is looking out of the shrine area and into the market where stalls are selling lots of cakes, sweets and tourist type stuff. Looking towards the main shrine:

In the forefront is an incense burner. People go up to the shrine throw some money into the offering box and clap their hands. I’ve seen that at certain festivals each person gets to ring a bell. Then some sort of prayer is offered. Other things happen that are probably best explain with some photos of another shrine.

This is Meiji-Jingu, a Shinto shrine, in Harajuku:

It’s a lot quieter which is nice (although Senso-ji was quite impressive both in terms of size and popularity). This is the courtyard:

While I was there a wedding ceremony took place. I think it may only have been a blessing rather than a full ceremony. The brides retinue, which seemed to include her family, slowly made their way across the courtyard (I didn’t take photo’s as I thought that would be a bit cheeky). They went into a building at the side of the shrine and after banding of drums the whole part processed across in front of the shrine to another side building of the shrine to receive a blessing. A picture can be found on the Shrine’s Homepage.

Below is the main shrine. To the right is a tree where you attach wooden plaques with wishes written on them. Once a day these are offered in some way.

Sadly I couldn’t take pictures of inside of the shrine as this is not allowed.