Visiting the most popular shrine for New Year's

Meiji Jingu (明治神宮) is the most popular shrine in Tokyo during New Year's as it sees more than a few million Japanese visitors in a period of three or four days starting with the 31st. The shrine is in Harajuku (原宿) and during this period Yamanote Line (山手線) stops in a different platform in Harajuku which allows easy and direct walking access to the shrine. I think on ordinary days getting to the shrine is a bit more complicated than this. Of course the directness of the route did not do much to improve the walking time because of the huge crowd. See, even though I waited till the 3rd it was evident that it would take a while to get to the shrine the moment I got off the train and found myself in a sea of people.

The walk from the station to the shrine itself would probably not take more than 3-5 minutes had it been empty but in the sea, nay the ocean, of people it took a good 15-20 minutes. Don't get me wrong - the walk is through extremely pleasant surrounding. The shrine is practically in the middle of a park. There are trees flanking the unpaved walkway with even a little stream in the middle flowing lazily under a bridge. Of course these things may have been extremely easy to miss if it was not for the stop and go of the crowd so I guess there was a positive side of all that crowd after all ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talking of stop and go - the flow of the crowd is controlled by policemen holding up signs in Japanese and English. Of course since this is Japan there is a cute little manga-style character in the sign they hold up. This character is actually kind of like a police mascot. All of the little police stations have this character as well. I think these pictures should give you an idea about the size of the crowd...

The goal for everyone in the crowd is getting to the building there in the background so that they can drop a coin and prey. Of course since there are so many people this does not happen easily and people get impatient, throwing their coins from far away so that they don't have to wait. This means two things -

1. The floor, behind the barrier, gets covered with coins of all sizes, and
2. The poor policemen behind the barrier have to fend for themselves against the potentially raining coins (hence the face protection).

 

Tsurugaoka Hachimango （鶴岡八幡宮） and Wakamiya Oji （若宮大路）

Tsurugaoka Hachimango Shrine is one of the most famous in Shinto Shrines in Kamakura and it is always full with domestic and international visitors. The shrine itself is on a hill and takes a few minutes to go up those stairs but it is well worth it. The garden on the way to the shrine is also very pretty and is adorned by a lake as well. The birds are used to humans feeding them so do not be surprised if you "get ambushed" by them. One thing I learnt here - apparently after land is prepared for building a house or a building, they circle the field with a rope and they hang talismans on the rope to cleanse the field of bad souls.

The walk up to the shrine is almost as famous as the shrine itself. Wakamiya Oji, as it is called, is a pretty long walkway (flanked by the roads for cars) that was initially built to help shrine visitors get there from the beach. The walkway has lanterns (quite a few of them) that lit up at night and there are nearly just as many cherry trees which makes me think when the cherry blossoms are out the walkway becomes even more beautiful.