Meiji Jingu Shrine

A month or so ago (when we had a visitor from home) we took a trip into Tokyo and explored the area around Yoyogi Park more thoroughly.  We went there once before but we didn't actually go see the main feature of Yoyogi Park which is the Meiji Jingu shrine.

Meiji Jingu is a massive Shinto shrine dedicated to the spirits of the Meiji Emperor (he ruled 1867 to 1912) and his wife.  It's in the middle of Yoyogi Park which is 175 acres of huge trees smack in the middle of Tokyo.  The trees were donated from all over Japan and the world and installed when the shrine and park were constructed in 1920.

Two interesting things about Meiji Jingu:

First, it was completely destroyed in the Tokyo air raids during WWII.  Public funds were raised to reconstruct it in the late 50's.

Second, world leaders (I use that term loosely) like to visit it.  Hillary Clinton was there in 2009 right after she was made Secretary of State.  And, if you go to the Wikipedia page there's a photo of Nazis visiting it in 1938.*  So, yeah.

main building

panorama of the complex

exiting

this photo is from our previous visit.  if you look carefully at the bottom right of the torii you can see Chad and a
stroller with our abandoned child

*This is in no way meant to compare the two.