Tokyo: Meiji Shrine

One of the top-rated things to see in Tokyo was the Meiji Shrine. I know it sounds awful, but living in China has made me take up the motto "you've seen one temple/shrine, you've seen them all." I have seen a ton of shrines/temples/etc this past year, but since it was top rated (and included on most of the walking tours that I looked at) I decided to visit. I should begin by saying the "shrine" isn't anything spectacular, but the area surrounding it is huge and has lots to look at. It is quite a hike (not really uphill or anything, just a long distance) to get to the shrine itself. There were several times on my trip that I thought I was at the shrine, only to find out I wasn't. 

 One of the first things I passed were these sake containers. They all had the Japanese kanji and pictures painted on them.

I'd walk for about 15 minutes, and come across one of these. I'm not sure what to call them, but every time I was a bit let down thinking it was the shrine. Nope, not yet.

 

Here's the actual shrine. It wasn't much to look at for me. It actually had signs on parts of it asking tourists not to enter unless they were there for worship. That was one of the first respectful signs I had seen at a religious site. 

There was also this cool wall of wooden postcards. You could purchase them on-site and write prayers or well wishes on them and hang them up.

Okay seriously? How cute are these kids? I saw lots of small children in the traditional Japanese kimonos and I asked the parents if I could take pictures. Check out those wooden shoes on the little girl in red. They went all out.