Meiji Jingu

Meiji Jingu is one of the most popular shrine located in Tokyo and it is a must visit tourist attraction in Tokyo. Meiji Jingu is located on the West side of Tokyo. It can be reached directly by train by getting off at Yoyogi station and other train stations. From Tokyo station, it takes about 15 minutes by train to get to Meiji Jingu.


Meiji Jingu has multiple entrances. We entered from the North entrance gate. Once we entered the Meiji Jingu park, we walked for 5 minutes to get to the actual temple. 
The temple is well maintained and very clean. There is 1 big tree at one corner, with a lot of prayers from people placed around it. There are 2 other trees at the adjacent corner and these 2 trees are tightly hooked to each other. It is said that prayer made under these 2 trees will get the couple to live happily ever after. All these 3 trees are very round. Not sure if they are being trimmed at regular basis or it somehow just grew like that.

Other than these 3 trees, we did not see any other trees within the temple. Outside of the temple, there is a small building that can be used to held wedding ceremonies. It is usually closed and not allow people to enter. But this is the only building with AC turned on during this hot summer day.

At each entrance of Meiji Jingu temple, there are also booths that sell Omamories, which is Japanese luck charms. There are several Mikos, who are Japanese shamans in the booths selling Omamories. Mikos usually wear white tops and red pants. They are usually seen with bows and arrows. The Omamories that are being sold at Meiji Jingu looks rather nice and have variety of colors. In our opinion, the Omamories sold at Meiji Jingu looks the best among all the temples we have visited. Thus we bought few Omamories to bring us some good luck.

As we leave Meiji Jingu, we went out from the South entrance. On the South entrance side, there were a lot of Japanese alcohol container baskets placed on the side with various symbols and drawings on them. They were stacked together and looked quite fancy. There were also Kimono rental service for woman to try out the Kimono for few hours. The Kimono rental here only has 1 style, which is red. It looks like it does not do the hair for you and you wear the Kimono on top of your cloth. Since the weather was extremely hot, not many people were trying it.

In our opinion, Meiji Jingu is a great place to visit with rich history behind it. The Omamories sold here are also amazing and beautiful. It is definitely worth it to buy Omamories to bring the luck.