Meiji Shrine

This weeks big visit was to the Meiji Shrine. The Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine. Shinto is called Japan's ancient original religion. It has no "founder", no holy book, and not even the concept is religious, but Shinto values things like Harmony with nature and virtues such as "Magokoro" (sincere heart). This particular shrine is dedicated to the divine souls of Emperor Meiji, who passed away in 1912. It is one of the most visited shrine's in Tokyo, and is actually right next to Yoyogi Park, so it has a lot of trees, gardens and natural beauty. The pictures above are of the shrine, the prayer cards- people pay to have prayers put up in this area, and the Hand and mouth cleansing..before entering the shrine area, you need to cleanse your hands and mouth by dumping water from this fountain into a wooden cup- it looks like a wooden measuring cup on the end of a wooden stick- and then pouring it onto first your left hand, then your right. Then you pour some into your mouth to cleanse your mouth, empty the rest back and put your wooden measuring cup/stick back in its proper location. It was a nice day, with some very nice ladies!