神社, jinja

Japanese Shrines are so incredibly beautiful!

Today the weather in Japan was dreary at best for most of the day, but this evening everything finally cleared up enough for my husband and I to venture outside of the base. We decided to visit shrines around our city and I was beyond excited to get a glimpse into the Japanese culture.

The first shrine we arrived at was tucked away in a residential area, and it had a steep stairway to climb upon entry into the shrine. I was amazed at the immense amount of detail that is put into every aspect of a shrine, down to the materials used for the stairs. I noticed that the stairs makeup were of two different materials separated by the railing, which turned out to have significant meaning. One side of the material was your journey up the stairs into the temple, and the other was leaving down outside of the temple. These particular shrines didn't have displays explaining the meaning or history of that particular location because these were much smaller, residential shrines than the ones seen in the heart of Tokyo.

The second shrine we visited was much shorter in statue and well kept. There were wood carvings of dogs and cats with Japanese writings strung across these clothes lines. We assumed that people visited these shrines, signed these cutouts, and placed them on the line. We weren't sure about the meaning of the dogs and cats because the signs were all in Japanese but it was interesting to see the architectural difference in comparison to the first shrine.

The last local shrine we visited was basically abandoned, and turned into a playground! All was not lost though because no matter where me and my husband go we seek adventure. We happened to notice a sunflower field below the shrine, so we carefully trekked through the garden area and mud over to the sunflower fields for an impromptu photoshoot! It was such a blast to immerse myself into this rich part of Japan and it's culture.