A Long Walkabout

Sunday morning, I had planned to take a short walk after breakfast to the nearby Miyashita Park (宮下公園), since I haven't been exercising at all for the whole week. It turned out to be such a tiny park that I kept on walking, and before I knew it, I was already in the Harajuku shopping district. There I decided to circle back, but taking a different route which took me to the Harajuku Station, and quite unintentionly near the Meiji Shrine (明治神宮).

I remember being here a few years back with Alvin while he was undergoing internship at Koei in Japan. I can't quite remember what I was doing in Japan back then, but I was probably there for the Tokyo Game Show. Anyway, he wanted to show me some sights, but alas we came too late in the afternoon and the place had already closed. Since I have the whole morning free and I had intended to take a stroll in nature anyway, I walked towards the park. It was only 10am, but the tourists and local visitors have already started streaming in.

The Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken. It is located in a forest that covers an area of 700,000 square-meters covered by an evergreen forest that consits of 120,000 trees of 365 different species. [Info courtesy of Wikipedia]

Before entering the Shrine compound, visitors should cleanse themselves spiritually as a sign of respect for the sanctity of the shrine. This is done by using the water ladle to rinse the left and right hands, then the mouth.

After the Shrine, I did a bit more walking in the surrounding forest area. It's really nice to be able to walk in nature on a warm Sunday morning. This kind of wide open space is impossible to find in Singapore. After the nice morning walk, I returned to the hotel to do my homework.

Whenever I see a traditional Japanese lamp post I half expect a samurai
to appear and slice it in half. Perhaps I play too much video games :P

Two Japanese kids playing by the stream, and two ducks by the pond.