Sayonara Tokyo

 Slight change in temperature in Nikko, a 2 hour train ride outside of Tokyo. 

We visited a Shinto shrine- Buddhist temple.  During the 1800s the 2  sort of embraced each other but still are different. Shinto is an earthly. You go to a shrine to pray for good health, good grades in school, a romantic relationship, fertility, honor ancestors etc which you can buy. On New Years Eve you pay for your fortune, if you like it, you drop the slip of paper into a box at the entrance to the shrine which holds no statues, no lecturn, no seats.  It is basically an empty structure. If you don’t like your fortune, you tie it to a rope and leave it there.

Buddhism is more about purification and the afterlife. Combining the 2 makes for a very clean environment and no graffiti. Neither one has a doctrine, a spiritual leader, a moral code.  It is all quite confusing to me as I look through the lens of organized religion. There is no day of the week set aside for worship.  Approaching the shrine, you cross under a tree gate indicating you are getting close to a holy site. You then go to the purification station to wash first your left and then your right hand after which you swish out your mouth and spit the water out. Then you proceed to the shrine itself. 

Thousands of bottles of sake given as offerings to the shrine 

Thousands of memorials to babies who didn’t live to breathe a day on earth