Meiji Jingū, Fusion Ramen, and Sensō-ji

There is no shortage of things to do and sights to see in Tokyo, but with just a short time in the Japanese capital before heading off to our next destination, we had to choose some of the highlights.

After our morning food tour at Tsukiji Market, Mom and I took the subway to Harajuku, not for the neighborhoods famous shopping and eclectic fashion, but for something quieter and more spiritual at the Meiji Imperial Shrine.

Meiji Jingu, or the Meiji Imperial Shrine, is one of Tokyo's most important spiritual sites. It is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. 

You enter the shrine's grounds by passing underneath a giant unpainted torii gate and into a 170-acre evergreen forest with over 120,000 trees from all across Japan located right in the middle of downtown in one of the largest cities on the planet.

In Shinto, torii gates mark the boundary between the secular and the spiritual and passing through this one into the forested shrine grounds is immediately transformative as you escape the bustle of the city.

The forested path to the main shrine hall is lined with hundreds of large sake barrels, each of which has been given in offering in a ceremony each year by members of the Nationwide Sake Brewers Association.

Sake has long been seen as a connection, or even a conduit, between the people and the gods in Japan, so every year, the country's sake brewers donate barrels of their rice wine to the enshrined spirits who are believed to reside at the shrine. The sake is used throughout the year in rituals and festivals.

In fact, the kanji character for sake is a combination of the characters for "god" and "wine" and drinking sake at a shrine or temple is supposed to bring you closer to the gods and spirits.

Further on, a row of wine barrels, similarly given by French wineries from the Burgundy region, are a symbol of Emperor Meiji's affinity for French wine and Western culture, and his efforts in bridging the East with the West during his highly transformative reign.

The shrine building is an impressive sight in itself. It was built using materials taken from every prefecture in Japan (including former territories which now belong to Russia, Korea, and Taiwan) and was officially designated as a first-rank government supported shrine.

After Emperor Meiji's death in 1912, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution to commemorate his role in the Meiji Restoration, which ended centuries of rule by the Shogun, essentially a feudal military dictator, and restored power to the emperor, previously a symbolic figurehead. This marked the beginning of Japan's modernization and industrialization and is often seen as the birth of modern Japan. The Diet ordered the construction of the large shrine, which officially opened in 1926.

The surrounding gardens are beautiful as well, particularly during the spring when the cherry blossoms and flowers are in full bloom. It was the middle of summer when we visited. No flowers were blooming, but everything was very green, and the air was full of the sound of cicadas.

We walked through the gardens past the Kakuuntei, a teahouse built for Empress Shoken by her husband as a place from which to admire the beautiful gardens.

One major philosophy of Japanese architecture is that of harmonizing with nature, and the shrine and gardens themselves are designed to emphasize the natural beauty of the grounds. If you didn't know any better, you would think that you were somewhere far out in the countryside rather than in the middle of Tokyo.

We were both still a bit tired from traveling, and the afternoon was starting to get very hot, so we returned to our hotel room for a rest.

In the evening, we went out for dinner at a highly rated fusion ramen shop.

Traditional Japanese ramen is made by serving thick and chewy wheat noodles in a soy sauce and miso broth alongside thinly sliced pork, dried seaweed, bamboo shoots, green onions, soft-boiled eggs, and other meats or aromatic toppings.

The restaurant we ate at was a halal restaurant that served wagyu beef in bowls of spicy broth. We ordered a set menu, which came with a huge bowl of ramen noodle soup, fried dumplings, kimchi, rice, grilled beef, and a sweet pudding for dessert.

We ordered level 2 spice (out of ten), and I'm glad that we did! Even though I'm used to spicy food from living in Thailand, the broth was quite hot! It added a wonderful flavor to the noodles and the meat, but it was too spicy to drink on its own, and anything higher would have been hard to eat. The meal was delicious and very filling, and was a great way to finish our first full day in Japan.

We were staying in Asakusa, just a short walk from Senso-ji, so after dinner Mom and I took a stroll on our way back to our hotel to visit Tokyo's most iconic Buddhist temple.

Senso-ji, also known as Asakusa Kannon, is an ancient temple (Tokyo's oldest, established in 682). It is dedicated to Kannon (Guanyin), a Buddhist Boddhisatva and goddess of mercy.

The legend goes that two fishermen brothers pulled a small golden statue of Kannon from the nearby Sumida River. Nobody knew where it had come from, and no matter how many times they tried to return the statue to the water, it always came back to them. Eventually, a temple was constructed near the river to honor Buddha and the goddess Kannon.

Unlike the Meiji Shrine, which is Shinto, Senso-ji is Buddhist. Shinto is the indigenous religion in Japan, while Buddhism entered Japan in the 6th century by way of China.

In Japan, shrines are Shinto and temples are Buddhist, and you can tell them apart through their architecture and practices. However, the truth is that in modern times, both religions have very much blended together in everyday Japanese life, and it's uncommon to claim to be a follower of one over the other. Most people tend to participate in both Buddhist and Shinto rituals and practices.

Senso-ji is a beautiful temple, especially in the evening and at night when the red-painted buildings of the temple complex are illuminated. We arrived as the sun was setting and were able to go inside the temple hall before it closed for the day. The rest of the grounds are open 24 hours and only became more beautiful and impressive as night continued to fall.

The temple was completely destroyed in 1945 during the firebombing of Tokyo but was subsequently rebuilt over the following decades. The main hall was rebuilt according to its original design in 1951, and the iconic five-story pagoda was finished in 1973, making the end of the rebuilding process.

Our first full day in Japan was coming to a close, and we walked back along the river to our hotel. We would have one more day in Tokyo before heading out into the countryside.