Friday – March 18, 2016
The Meiji Shrine, located in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken. The shrine was built in a 170 acre evergreen forest that consists of 120,000 trees which were donated by people from all parts of Japan.
Barrels of saki were donated to the shrine to honor the emperor and empress .
We followed a succession of impressive wooden gates, called torii, to the shrine.
We saw a bridal procession with priests and maidens in traditional dress. 
Visitors leave handwritten prayers in all languages: 
We walked back to the spotlessly clean subway to take another train to the Shenjuku business district.
I love the ‘hot pink’ plush seats in this train. I don’t know how they keep them clean!
We got out of the subway to find ourselves in a busy neighborhood that reminded us of a modern Times Square. We stopped at a Starbucks for a rest. It was full of young people on computers.
