Sound the Bells

This is the end of the large rope that rings the bell at Hikawa Shrine (氷川神社). The proper way to pray varies slightly depending on the shrine but many go like this:

1. Step up and ring the bell

2. Bow twice

3. Clap twice

4. Pray (don't forget to say your name!) and throw coins in offering box

5. Bow once

Pretty simple right?

The reason we ring the bells and clap before we pray is, not only to wake up the gods and get their attention, but the sound also purifies our aura and allows us to communicate more clearly with the gods.

Wood and Life Span

I really love wood. And I really love how they used wood for the walls of this shrine.

This is the side wall of Akagi Shrine (you can see the front in a previous post here). I learned that this new and modern shrine was designed by a famous Japanese architect, Kengo Kuma. He's one of my favorite architects, not that I know very many by name, but I like how he designs buildings with both futuristic and traditional styles.

I found a random interview article where he talks about his style and interests...and how he doesn't like ties. His says "somebody said that a tie decreases the length of our life by ten years, this is why the average life of ladies is ten years longer." How fascinating.

Do you think this is true?

Chanoki Inari Shrine

This is one of the guardians of the Chanoki Inari Shrine. This shrine is located within the Ichigaya Kamegaoka Hachimangu grounds, which is the main shrine. If you look at the photo below, you can see red lanterns on the top left corner, which is where this shrine is located.

Chanoki Inari Shrine is said to be the first shrine that was made by Kukai, a famous Japanese monk, when he first came to the Kanto area about 1,000 years ago. There are many tea bushes around this shrine, which Kukai brought as medicine from China.

It's said that this shrine has the power to heal eyes. The legend goes...one day the white fox, one of the guardians of the shrine, accidentally poked its eye with a branch of a tea bush and hurt it. When it washed its eye with the water from the holy spring, it was healed. And although this spring is no longer in use, many people come here to pray for healthy eyesight to this day.

A Sacred Path

This is a row of Torii that line that path towards Itoku Inari Shrine (威徳稲荷神社).

With the cherry blossoms fluttering down through the Torii, it's a very pretty path to walk through. The Shrine at the end of the path is said to have been built in 1928.

But to tell you the truth, I'm always a little scared of the fox that guard all Inari Shrines...I swear they follow me with their eyes!

Akagi Shrine

This is the most modern shrine I've ever seen!

And no wonder...after 700 years of standing here, the old Akagi Shrine was rebuilt into this brand new Agaki Shrine just last year. It's gorgeous...yet a part of me just can't take in all the glass walls and how shiny everything is. But if you look closely at the offering box, there is a poster showing you how you should pray, which is the same as many other shrines. At least that hasn't changed!

Monday was exactly one month since the March 11 earthquake. It feels like such a short period of time has passed since the initial earthquake, but at the same time, it feels like we've been feeling these tremors forever. I can't even begin to imagine what the victims of the tsunami in Tohoku were feeling during the moment of silence we held at 2:46 p.m. on that day.

But just as we put the month behind us, to step forward into another day closer to recovery, an aftershock, quite bigger than our usual tremors, hit Fukushima again, shaking the whole Tokyo area, too. It was as if Mother Nature couldn't stand to be forgotten.

All these aftershocks really make it harder for the areas that were affected by the earthquake and tsunami to move on. It has actually already slowed down the progress at the nuclear reactors in Fukushima, which upgraded its level of crisis to 7.

But I guess we really can't do anything to sway Mother Nature. All we can do is take it one day at a time.

PS: Not wanting to end on a somber note...just letting you know I've got good new (for me, that is...) coming up tomorrow! :-)