Meiji Shrine

A glimpse of the Imperial Palace watch tower from our bus











The Japanese parliament building, along with its political organizational structure, was modeled after the German system.

Barrels of rice wine, or sake, are lined up infront of the shrine dedicated to the spirit of Emperor Meiji. The shinto religion believes you can spiritually cleanse yourself by drinking a shot of sake.

Before entering a shrine, one must cleanse oneself by washing hands and mouth.

Infront of each shinto shrine is a torii gate, which marks the beginning of the sacred world.

These two trees house a male and a female spirit. If you pray to these "kami (spirit gods)," it is said you will have good luck in love. We all took a shot cuz really, all you need is love.

We spotted these two cute older ladies dressed in their kimono. They couldn't believe we wanted to take a picture of them, but they were thrilled to do so. How would they have known that being in a kimono automatically makes them celebraties in a gaijin's eye.