Meiji Jingu Shrine - November 16, 2019

I have gotten SO behind on posting. This past week has been busy with Thanksgiving activities (more on that in future post). In addition to the holiday, my Japanese language class is ramping up the number of vocabulary words I need to memorize each week. It's paying off though. I am starting to understand bits of conversation people are having around me. Although, I am still leery to try to start a real conversation with anyone yet for fear of quickly getting in over my head.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we took a trip to see the Meiji Jingu Shrine. It is a shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji and the Empress Shoken. It is located within a heavily wooded park and the setting is quite peaceful.

I always find the architecture interesting.

The shine has an open courtyard with 3 entrances. Pictured below is one of them.

There were two weddings while we were there but I was only able to get a picture during one of them.

These are Ema, tablets for people to write their prayers and gratitudes to the deities on.

We were there the day after the Festival of Meiji Jingu had ended. Chrysanthemum flower groups had donated flowers for the festival and luckily they still had the flowers on display when we were there. Chrysanthemums are considered the flower of appreciation and their shape represents the Imperial Family (Don't ask me how. It was on a sign...in English, so I know the translation was correct.).

There were Bonsai displays as well.

A sign explained how they train the trunks of the chrysanthemums to grow down as if cascading over a rock cliff in a style called 'Kengai'. These were grown as part of a horticultural course at a high school. I am jealous, I never did anything like this when I was in high school.

We then decided to take a walk through the Meiji Jingu Inner Garden (aka Yoyogi Gyoen). The garden was there before the Shrine was built and used to be owned by several different lords throughout history until the Imperial Family took ownership. This is the tea house that overlooks the fishing pond.

There is an Iris Garden, but we were there at the wrong time of year to see the flowers blooming.

After leaving the garden we passed barrels of Saki that the brewers donate annually to show their respect. I thought the different designs were interesting.

Opposite of the Sake are barrels of wine from France given in the spirit of 'world peace and amity'.

It was time to head home but we stopped to enjoy this babbling brook on our way out, you can see the pond in the background.

All in all it was a very peaceful way to spend the day. The shrine is not as ornate as some, it is the garden that will draw me back. I enjoyed wandering through it and would like to go back in the spring when the flowers are blooming.