Tokyo Love Affair #9

15 November is Shrine Visiting Day for the kids in Japan. Clad in their finery, boys aged three and five and girls aged three and seven are brought to the shrines to offer gratitude for growth and good health.

Meiji Shrine on that day was filled with adorable, rosy-cheeked Japanese kids stumbling around in their traditional costumes.



There were also tonnes of wedding ceremonies taking place. Family after family kept filing into this spot to take portraits. They dump their bags into the white trolleys by the side and obediently get into neat roles and smile for the photographer. Lots of bystanders like me surrounded these happy people and snapped pictures of them, as if it was an exhibition. But it was all very harmonious and joyful.

Family after family kept filing out from where the (very grand) ceremonial hall is and I was among the paparazzi who could not resist taking picture after picture of them.

Every time someone posed for a photo, if there was a bride or a cute kid involved, several cameras would rapidly raise and fire away. Parties involved were very obliging though, especially parents who were more than happy to show off their children by letting them pose for strangers who asked.

I couldn't tell the brides apart because they were all wearing what seemed to be the same thing. But I liked how out of the world they looked, like an ethereal version of their real self.

This is the entrance to Meiji Shrine, behind Harajuku station. Meiji Shrine is beautiful and peaceful even when it was crowded. Like your heartbeat slows and your breath deepens and you can afford to be contented.