Meiji Jingu Shrine

Yesterday was a horribly warm summerday, a day when the heat didn't leave much air to breathe. Today on the other hand it's been raining all day and summer rain is nice :) So today I decided to go to Meiji Jingu Shrine. I think it was about the only shrine in Tokyo I hadn't seen yet and I thought today was a good day to take care of that :) Turned out it was a much better idea than I had originally thought.

The shrine is situated in central Tokyo, in Harajuku to be precise. But it really didn't feel like it! After crossing the Jingu bridge I found myself at the foot of a forest. And when entering that forest the sounds of the city vanished completely (Tokyo has a way of doing that. Everytime one enters something natural or sacred the city vanishes). Everything that existed was the forest, the gravel and the smells of the wet woods. When I arrived at the temple I immediately realised that there was a traditional wedding going on. The ceremony seemed to be over, but the groom and the bride were being photographed so I took a picture myself ;) among lots of other tourists. When walking around the temple taking pictures I also realised that it had Totoro-trees :) And the whole woods, seen a little from above, seemed to be taken from the film. It was a really cosy feeling. I also saw this procession inside the temple. Don't know if it had something to do with the wedding, but the bride and groom didn't participate so maybe it was just a normal mass? Since it's Sunday... When I got home I was still in quite a cosy mood so I changed into an overly big sweater and soft pants and crawled to bed with Neil Gaiman's Stardust. Started reading it then, read about half by now and I think I'll go back to my book now :)