After some much needed sleep, day one for my group started off at the Shinto shrine, Meji Jingu. The shrine is dedicated to the divine souls of Emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken. It was completed in 1920 which was just shortly after the Emperor and Empress had died. It was destroyed in World War II but was rebuilt shortly after that. The entrance is marked with a big torii gate and contains over 100,000 trees that were donated from all over the world.

(Meji Jingu Torii Gate)

 Meiji Jingu shrine is very popular around the New Year’s Holiday because there are usually over three million people who visit during the holiday to have their first prayer of the year there. The shrine is also a very popular place for typical Shinto weddings are performed.

When you first walk into the shrine, you head to the chozuya where you wash both hands and your mouth before you go pray to the gods.

(Band president Robby Newell doing chozuya)

There are a couple different ways you can pray. You can go and physically pray, you can purchase an ema that you can write your hopes and dreams on, or they have pieces of paper that you can write your hopes and dreams on and then drop it in a box.

(Ema) 

At the shrine, there is also the opportunity to get a fortune for 100yen. They have a whole little box of fortunes that are written in English which was nice for those of us that don’t speak Japanese. My favorite item that I purchased was an omamori which is a little protection charm. There are all different things that it could protect from health/ well-being of family to help finding a good spouse.

What I loved about this shrine was how peaceful it was. All of the trees and nature were just so calming and to have something like that right in the middle of a really busy city is mind-blowing to me. Another really cool part about our experience was getting to see a traditional Shinto wedding professional. It was fun to see the bride in her wedding kimono and the rest of the family also dressed up for the occasion.

(Wedding Processional)

Overall, I think my favorite part of today was finally getting to be immersed into the Japanese culture that we’ve been talking about since day one of rehearsal. With the shrines, the shopping, and the food, it was all different then what I’m used to but it was definitely a good kind of different. I’m looking forward to continuing to experience different aspects of Japanese Culture.

Sources:

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3002.html