My parents got up early, and enjoying the amazing
views of sea from our hotel room and taking pictures. The Sheraton Grande Tokyo
Bay hotel had a beautiful garden with artificial rocky ponds, caves and
waterfalls. We had a quick breakfast in the room itself and spent sometime in
the garden for taking pictures.
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Tokyo
bay view from Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay
hotel room, Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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At
the garden of Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay hotel,
Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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After visiting
DisneySea, Mt Fuji and Hakone, on the third day in Tokyo, we planned to go
around the Tokyo city. We arranged Panoramic Tokyo tour through Sunrise Tours. The
meeting place for the tour bus was in Hamamatsucho the same place as the
previous day and again the time set to leave was 9 AM.
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At the garden of Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay hotel,
Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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In train, on the way to Tokyo main station,
Tokyo, Japan.
Apr. 29, 2014.
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We were seated
comfortably in the Hato tour bus on time. Our tour guide spoke very good
American English as she was brought up in California for a few years. She was
very professional in her job. She explained the places we were going to visit
with the help of a beautifully labelled map. Our first destination was Meiji Jingu
Shinto Shrine.
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In
Sunrise Tour Hato Bus. Guide briefs about tour programme.
Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29,
2014
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This is what I learnt
from our guide about Shinto. Shinto is one of the religions of Japan. Buddhism
has temples whereas, Shinto has shrines (I have already covered some of these
information in one of my previous posts). Shinto was started in Japan nearly
3000 years ago and never introduced to other countries. Shinto religion has no
founder, no holy book, no specific teaching. Shinto is something like living in
harmony with nature. Shinto religion has 8 million gods, for example, god of
the mountain, god of the ocean, god of the tree, god of the flower, god of the
sun and so on; simply believing that god is everywhere in this world. This
religion is concerning only about this life that we are living and nothing
about after the death.
Buddhism started in
India and came through the Asian countries China and Korea and finally arrived
to Japan in the middle of 6th century. Buddhism speaks about life
after death also and it was a very new idea for Japanese people. So it took
nearly 100 years for Japanese to get familiarize with Buddhism and slowly started
following it. But still they kept Shinto as a traditional religion which they
thought need for the blessings of the present life while Buddhism would help
them in life after death (spirit life). So simply, both the religions have been
coexisting to this day in Japan.
As I mentioned above, the
worshipping places for Shinto and Buddhism are called Shinto shrine and Buddhism
temple, respectively. May be the outside looks similar, but the inside altars
are very different. The Buddhist altar has lot of golden decorations and
statues, give a rich looking, whereas the Shinto altar is very simple and
empty. Ninety percent of the Japanese are Shintoists, 80% are Buddhists and
1.5% are Christians and followers of other religions. See the total, it is more
than 100% and doesn’t make sense, right? Ok, this means that most of the
Japanese follow Shinto and Buddhism, a kind of mixed.
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Tokyo tower, Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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On the way to Meiji
Jingu shrine, we have seen the Tokyo Tower built in 1958. From Guide’s words,
the Tokyo Tower looks little bit like Eiffel Tower of Paris (France). The Tokyo
Tower was built after nearly 50 years of Eiffel Tower. Our Guide said, “the
Tokyo Tower might be inspired from Eiffel Tower. You know, we Japanese people
are pretty good at copying things and sometimes making better than the
original”. The Tokyo Tower is bit taller than Eiffel Tower with 1000 ft, but
not beautiful as Eiffel tower may be because of the international orange colour
painting, because of city aviation law.
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Sake barrels at the entrance of Meiji Jingu Shinto
shrine.
Tokyo,
Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
|
To our delight, cherry
blossoms were lining up on the sides of the pathway which led to the entrance
of the Meiji Jingu shrine. It offered a great opportunity to take pictures. At
the entrance of the Meiji Jingu shrine, on the rightern side there were lot of Japanese
sake barrels. Sake is a Japanese alcohol made from rice. Sake has been
considered as a sacred drink and these empty sake barrels were kept by companies
for advertisement. On the leftern side, there were French wine barrels.
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Torii Gate at the entrance of Meiji Jingu Shinto
shrine.
Tokyo,
Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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Near
the Torii Gate, there was a place to pay respect to Shinto god through a series
of actions (these actions are independent of religious beliefs).
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Rinsing hands and mouth to pay respect to Shinto god
at Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine. Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
|
1. Rinse
your left hand, rinse your right hand.
2. Pour
water into your left hand and rinse your mouth
3. Rinse
your left hand and rinse the dipper
At
the main shrine building, near the altar,
1. You may put some coins
into the offertory box
2. Bow twice
3. Clap your hands twice
4. Bow once again
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Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine. Tokyo, Japan.
Apr. 29, 2014
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| Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine. Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014 |
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| Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine. Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014 |
The shrine was lively,
with all the preparations going on for what seemed like a special occasion; it
could be for a marriage function. We just got a peek of the proceedings. In the
short time I saw the marriage, what caught my eyes was the clothes worn by the
bride and groom. It was the traditional Yukata and I had only seen it in
pictures. I was happy that I got a glimpse of it; it was regal to look at.
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