Tokyo Visit: Japanese Life in Meiji Shrine

I shared about the cleansing process before entering the shrine as well as the Ema and how the Japanese write their wishes on the woodblocks and hang them in front of a tree.

Read these articles here:

• Wishes on Wood at Meiji Shrine
• Tokyo Visit: Meiji Jingu

Aside from that, there's also Kiganbun, a letter to the kami. We didn't get to take advantage but in this process, a visitor or a local can write their wishes on paper and place it inside an envelope. There are boxes near the tree where these envelopes are dropped. Every morning during the Nikku-sai or the morning rite, these letters are collected and offered to the kami.

Kami by the way is the object of worship in the Shinto belief, thus, it can mean god, lord, or diety.

There's also a stamp available for stamp collectors, a Goshuin. It has a calligraphy in it and proves your visit to the shrine. I missed this though, only found it after we were out of the shrine. But I was able to gather some stamps from the other areas which were great especially the observatory deck in the Metropolitan Building.

There is more to see here. In fact, during our visit, we spotted some people who were in their traditional Japanese clothing which were on the way to a private rite.

xoxo,
junebride