VELTRA tours & activities, fun things to do

Amazing cultural experience you can't get anywhere else

If you read a lot of manga or watch a lot of anime, you're bound to have run into a Shinto shrine and/or miko or two. It's very difficult to find an experience like this as most shrines limit participation to native Japanese. The priest at this shrine is very progressive.

I was lucky to have an English-speaking miko (I'll leave her name out for privacy) present for my experience, so I was able to ask more questions than I would have with my poor Japanese. Both the head priest and the miko-san were very attentive and eager to share the Shinto religion.

We spent about half an hour getting dressed--the robes are complicated, especially if you've never worn a hakama before (if you practice kendo or aikido, it's the same hakama). We then spent about 45 min. practicing the ritual movements and walking like a miko and then we spent about 15 min. performing the actual ritual. We spent another half hour on "question and answer" time, and they even let me hold the kagura suzu (ritual bells seen in the movie Kimi No Na Wa). The priest gave me some blessed rice kernels as a gift.

By the way, the map location is inaccurate--it shows the shrine as being across the road from the vintage store JAMS. It's actually a block or two past on that main street. When you exit the station, you'll see a McDonald's in front of you. Go straight down that road. Instead of turning left to get to JAMS, You'll keep going straight and pass a hospital and then a baseball field/park on your left. At the end of the baseball field, turn left, and then turn left again when you see a children's playground at the end of the baseball field. The shrine is almost directly opposite the children's playground. As the previous shrine burned down, it's now in a modern building, so don't look for tori gates, statutes, or anything. However, the priest told me they're rebuilding in about a year--I'm hoping to return once they do!