Tourists in Tokyo: Meiji Shinto shrine

We signed up for half-day bus tour to see some sights. First stop for Kathy after a bus picked us at our hotel and dropped us off at the tour center to await our actual tour bus was a cup of coffee out of a machine.



And then off we go with a busload of tourists from a variety of countries. That was easy to tell because they often kept talking among themselves in various languages while our guide, Mr. Sato, cheerfully continued to narrate over the p.a. system on the bus. Oh dear. Does it already show that we generally don't like bus tours?



Our first stop is the Meiji Shinto shrine, dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his wife. We enter through the largest wooden torii gate in Japan.



Every sake maker in Japan supplies free barrels and sake as a tribute to Shinto shrines,



And now the whiskey distilleries are getting in on the act.



A place for visitors to write prayers and leave them...





A picture of the shrine itself from a distance, as photo-taking isn't allowed inside...




More scenes...







And seen outside the restroom, the not uncommon toilet-paper vending machine, a note of practicality in a site generally devoted to spiritual matters...



As we drove out we had a look at the lantern wall.