If you take the JR line to Harajuku, the Meiji Shrine is just to the west of the station. The large, leafy park is a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of Harajuku.

The Meiji Shrine is dedicated to the emperor Meiji and his consort, Shoken. Meiji died in the early part of the 20th century. There are tens of thousands of trees here.

Meiji Shrine is located near the center of the park. The entrance is free. If you'd like to offer your wishes then go up to the shrine, throw a coin in the box and bow your head, clap your hands, wish for something, clap your hands again and bow. There are charms and other things for sale in little booths to the east.

The rest of the park is much less crowded then the central shrine area and is a great place for a walk. There is 'Treasure Museum' to the north but the offerings are quite slim (many recent portraits of emperors and empresses and a carriage). There is also a museum annex in the southeast area of the park, next to the big gift shop and restaurant. This annex presents rotating exhibits, some quite good. Entrance for the 'Treasure Museum', which includes the annex, is 600 yen but students get a discount.

The official website in English can be found here: www.meijijingu.or.jp/english/index.htm

At the entrance of the shrine is a gigantic torii gate (see picture below), which was built from some 1,700-year-old cypress trees from Taiwan. The gate marks the gateway between the physical and spiritual worlds. When passing under the torii, the worshippers’ hearts and minds are purified before praying to the gods and spirits. The path leading to the inner shrine temple features a few more Torii gates, which were donated by different groups of people.

Along the way, the visitor will get to see an extremely big shelf of sake barrels. Many companies donated them to the shrine and its monks. Upon reaching the Outer Garden entrance, visitors will find a small fountain provided at a corner for them to purify themselves by rinsing their hands and mouths.

In the Outer Garden, you can see two huge trees left and right, and under one of them are the prayer plates. You can buy empty ones and inscribe your wishes. Those are then burnt. At another corner of the Outer Garden is the Meiji Memorial Hall, where the shrine carries on one of its important religious activities, like performing Shinto-wedding ceremonies. I was lucky that day, as I got to witness two couples having their weddings performed at the shrine. It was really a major experience. The monk would somehow sound the drum after the priest went through a series of rituals.

The main temple shrine is just ahead. There is a small courtyard in front of the temple entrance. The gates in there have very nice decorations. From here, you can see the main hall, where the shrine of the great Meiji Emperor and Empress are. I prayed and made wishes just like most Japaneses did. I was happy to make the trip to this shrine. It was certainly marvellous.

Tips: Go on Thursday or Sunday, as weddings are typically on these days.

Two large torii gates reaching heights of 40 feet (among the largest of this kind) lead to the shrine. The style of the building is called "Nagarezukuri", and liberally employs Japanese cypress wood in its construction. The green copper roofs have a steep and graceful swoop to them, but they are looking a bit weathered nowadays. Other buildings on the premises are the Treasure Museum, the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery, and the Meiji Memorial Hall ("Wedding Hall").

As indicated by the name, the Inner Garden beautifully surrounds the shrine. Over two million visitors pack the grounds to pay their respects to their ancestors during New Years ceremonies. The Outer Garden, in effect an annex to the Inner Garden, is a bit further east. The Outer Garden has a completely different character than the Inner Garden, as this is more like the "sports center" of Tokyo. There is the National Stadium (used during the 1964 Summer Olympics), baseball fields, tennis courts, and gymnasia.

I remember meeting a few fellows who flew in from Sao Paulo to Tokyo via Chicago (that's a lot of flying!). These green-clad guys were fans of the Palmeiras soccer club, who were to play Manchester United in a championship match. It almost seemed that they came to the shrine to wish their team good luck in the game (they would eventually lose the match to the storied English club).

The original shrine was destroyed during the Second World War and the current construction was completed in 1958. In contrast to many other postwar reconstructions in Japan, the original plans were followed and the correct building materials, in this case mainly Japanese cypress, were used. The shrine is situated in a forest like park with more than 120 000 trees donated from all areas of Japan.

The main entrance to the shrine is close to Harajuku Station (JR Yamanote Line) or Meiji Jingumae Station (Chiyoda subway line). You enter through an enormous wooden torii (see photo below) and proceed along a wide gravel walkway. After several minutes walk turn to the left and go through another torii - the largest wooden torii in Japan. To the left is a small park - admittance charged and not really worth it. (A surcharge is added while the irises are blooming in June / July whether in full bloom or nearing expiration!)

The shrine itself follows a type of Shinto shrine architecture dating back to the eight century of dignified simplicity with decorations limited to the absolute minimum. This is in stark contrast to the splendor and excessive decoration at the mausoleum of the first Tokugawa Shogun in Nikko. At Meiji Jingu most of the wood are unpainted, with a limited use of white paint and copper naturally turned green the only contrasting colors. The chrysanthemum crest of the imperial family is visible in several places including the square lanterns hanging from the eaves.

If you cut your shrine viewing teeth in Nikko or Kamakura, Meiji Jingu will come as a pleasant surprise - there are practically no stairs here. That said the walk from the entrance to the shrine itself takes a good 20 minutes or so. It is mostly gravel and can get a bit dusty on a busy day. It is also not suitable for narrow wheel strollers and wheelchairs although ones with thicker wheels seem to be OK.

There are frequent festivals and events held at the shrine. The most crowded is the first three days of the New Year. On New Year’s Eve it can take several hours to proceed from the entrance to the shrine itself and even on 2 January you can expect enough people to slow proceedings down to a crawl.

The Meiji Shrine is open from sunrise to sunset and entrance is free.

It is beautiful, austere, and huge, allowing the visitor to feel lost in huge trees and quiet paths. It is easy to forget you're in the center of one of the world's most crowded cities.

The day I visited, I took a long walk through the paths of the outer garden, and most of the time, I was the only one on the paved path.

The shrine itself was being cleaned up after a harvest festival, and uniformed workers scurried around.

If you see only one religious site in Tokyo, make it Meiji. It had such a peaceful aura and made a wonderful break from the traffic and congestion.

On the way from the parking lot to the shrine, you enter through the tall gate, made out of Taiwanese cypress trees. The simple design: two pillars and two cross bars (the top one curved up) make up the traditional Shinto gate.

As you enter the shrine area, you will notice to your left a hand washing station. This is where visitors stop and wash their hands in cold water using wooden ladles. This is done for purification purposes, although it seems to entertain a lot of the visitors.

The shrine itself has a rustic feeling to it. You can go up to the altar, throw some coins into the slots in front of the altar, clap your hands twice and bow. Clapping is appropriate in Shinto shrines as it awakes the gods (though in Buddist temple it will most likely get you kicked out).

You can purchase a variety of lucky charms here as well. Anything from "Luck in travel" to "Luck on an entrance examination" can be obtained for a little bit of yen.

To get here, you can take a metro to Meiji Jungu-mae station or alternatively near Harajuku station. Meiji Jingu is included on most Tokyo city bus tours.