The Busiest Intersection in the World: Tokyo's Hachiko Square

A key component of Tokyo’s transportation system is Shibuya Station, the third busiest train station in all Tokyo (after Shinjuku and Ikebukuro), handling over 2 million commuters daily who routinely travel between the city center and the suburbs to the south and west.  A pivotal feature of the main JR/Tokyu/Tokyo Metro complex is its six exits which open onto Hachiko Square, a rectangular space said to be the busiest “simultaneous pedestrian crosswalk” in the world, seeing approximately one million people each day, with as many as 10,000 people crossing during a single cycle of the light.  Read more . . .

Sacred Shinto Shrines of Japan

Founded in 711 CE, Fushimi Inari Shrine is located in Kyoto, and is one of the most revered Shinto shrines of Japan, serving as the headquarters for all the 40,000 shrines dedicated to Inari, the Japanese kami of fertility, across Japan.  Originally the god of rice, Inari now governs the modern equivalent: success and prosperity in business.  Fushimi Inari Shrine draws thousands of businessmen and tradespeople each month seeking blessings for their enterprises, especially at the annual first prayers of the New Year.  The land on which the shrine is built was called Shiba Shin’ami-cho during the Edo period, the period ruled by the Shoguns of the Tokugawa.  Read more . . .

Shintoism: Japan's Nature-Based Religion

The term Shinto is derived from two Japanese terms, shin (meaning divine being) and do (meaning way).  Thus, Shin do, is the name used to distinguish the indigenous Japanese way of addressing and interacting with divine beings.  The oldest known belief system in Japan, this “tradition” is so innately engrained in the Japanese worldview that until Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the sixth century CE, it needed no name.  Now one of several religions practiced in Japan, Shinto can best be understood as the label applied to the Japanese ways of honoring the spirits of nature.  Read more . . .

The Japanese Tea Ceremony

The Japanese Tea Ceremony, also called Chado or the “Way of Tea,” is a solemn and deliberate Japanese cultural activity that while highly ceremonial in nature, neither implies nor evokes anything beyond itself.  Traced to Zen Buddhist monks of the ninth century (though it may have earlier origins) to formal tea-tasting gatherings, the ceremony focuses around the preparation and presentation of matcha, a powdered green tea, the art of its performance the primary objective.  Perfected and popularized by Sen no Rikyu in the sixteenth century, the traditional tea ceremony has been deeply related to Zen Buddhism, and contains many aspects that teach a Zen way of life including the attainment of selflessness and a calm state of mind.  The symbolism of the ceremony is intended to inspire both the preparer and the observer to look to the ordinary not as a manifestation of a divine principle, but as the divine itself.  Read more . . .