Welcome!
I realized we don’t have a shrine appreciation thread yet, so I figure I’d start one here!
Do you love Japanese Shinto Shrines? Do you want to share your visits? Do you want to learn more about shrines? Let’s use this thread!
feel free to add your favorites and link to posts about them here 
Hokkaido
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Tohoku
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Kanto
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Chubu
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Kansai
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Chugoku
Shikoku
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Kyushu
Okinawa
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Outside Japan
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The first thing you do at a shrine is pass through a torii gate. If you’d like, you can bow to it before you walk through as a sign of respect to the god(s) of the shrine. You can also side walk (like a crab) through the torii, facing the middle. In earlier ages, people did this to show they were unarmed and had nothing to hide. You should though not walk in the middle of the path and instead to the side (I recommend going with the flow of traffic as left/right side walking changes from prefecture to prefecture). The center of the path at a shrine is considered where the god(s) walk.
Once through, there is usually water to purify your hands and mouth. Normally you’d wash your left hand, then your right, your mouth/lips, and then let the remaining water wash over the scoop’s handle. You’d let this water all fall outside the basin as in the basin should be the pure water. However, nowadays because of the pandemic, the scoops are gone from most shrines and they have a small trickle of water instead.
Please feel free to contribute more shrine etiquette tips here!
Dondoyaki
It’s considered disrespectful to throw out New Year’s decorations and charms with the regular trash, so starting in early January, many shrines have a box where you can put old charms and spiritual decorations to be purified with fire.
Chinowa Kuguri
Chinowa Kuguri are vertical hoops made of grasses that you can usually find at shrines starting on June 30th. Their purpose is help purify and repel diseases. You are supposed to walk through the hoop 3 times as part of the ritual. First you go through and circle around to the left, then you go through again but circle around to the right, then you go through a third time and circle to the left, finally, you pass straight through.
Tips
Shrine Shinto is beautiful
I think 厳島神社 is cool, I’d like to see it someday.
I assume it’s nice! Hopefully when they finish renovations, it’ll be possible to view it without obstruction again and also walk up to it.
What inspired this thread was that I was watching this video (time stamped)
and remembered all the cool omikuji games I’ve played at shrines.
Aoshima Shrine is an absolutely beautiful shrine in Miyazaki prefecture and located right along the coast. The island it’s on is surrounded by a cool geographical feature called the Devil’s Washboard
I’m not getting married though so my favorite part of the visit was fishing for my omikuji (fortune). While this video isn’t at Aoshima, it’s the same game
Check out the shrine’s website for more info!
Coming from someone who lives 15 minutes away from Miyajima by foot, it’s beautiful. 
They claim that construction should be finished by December of this year, but who knows if they’ll prolong it again if the pandemic continues…
But it’s really neat!
Gorgeous!! If they actually finish this time, I’ll have to make a trip out.
I went there a few weeks ago. It was all scaffolded up. 
I’ve been to many, many shrines. Trying to think of any visits that were particularly noteworthy…
I actually went there, but the torii gate was undergoing some maintenance so I couldn’t appreciate it fully. It was also right after New Year’s so there was a lot of people. I stood in line to get a 御朱印 for about 2 hours 
They were doing some kind of Noh performance during that time so at least it was a pleasant wait.
Alrighty, lemme see. Full list of shrines I’ve been to in Japan (aside from tiny near-nameless neighbourhood shrines) plus one photo that I took of them each.
Machida, Tokyo
Because it was the first full day of my first visit to Japan, we were wandering aimlessly near our hotel taking it easy, and it was there, so we went in to see how identical to anime it really was.
Miyajima, Hiroshima
Huh, I don’t seem to have been to many shrines on my first visit to Japan - this is the second actual shrine visit, on our tenth full day in Japan, though there were a few temples in between. Unfortunately, timing meant that we could only manage to visit Itsukushima during low tide, so I might have to visit again someday to get the full effect. (And to get a goshuin - I didn’t know about them at the time.)
Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto
Mostly visited here because it was near Kinkaku-ji and they also visited it in K-On! Unfortunately arrived late enough in the day that everything was already closing up.
Fushimi Ward, Kyoto
Because of course. Inari shrines are my favourite type of shrine.
Shibuya Ward, Tokyo
It was my last full day in Japan on the first trip, and I was trying to squeeze in as many last sights as I could manage, so I did little more than breeze through here before heading on to Shibuya. There was a wedding on.
Taito Ward, Tokyo
It was the first full day of my second visit to Japan, and now I knew about goshuin, so I needed to get a hold of a shuincho. This was a reasonably sizeable shrine that was reasonably close to my hotel, so I came here to see if I could get one, and it actually turned out to be quite pretty. They had shuincho, too.
Arakawa Ward, Tokyo
I was trying to do the Yanaka Shichifukujin Meguri (Seven Lucky Gods pilgrimmage) when I happened to spot this Inari shrine on my map, and I do love my Inari shrines.
Arakawa Ward, Tokyo
The Shichifukujin Meguri wasn’t going great - most of the temple offices were closed, and not doing goshuin - so I started to wander in whichever direction looked prettiest, and found this shrine with ginkgo leaves carpeting the ground.
Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo
This one is on basically all of the “pretty places to visit in Tokyo” lists, so I knew I had to make the time to visit. Plus, it has a little Inari shrine on the grounds, which was an extra bonus.
Taito Ward, Tokyo
On the way to start my planned activity this day, I went for a wander through Ueno Park, and happened to come across this shrine.
Taito Ward, Tokyo
… and then this one - and hey, this one’s an Inari Shrine.
Taito Ward, Tokyo
I was at Senso-ji, and this place is right next door, sooo… (I’m fairly sure this photo’s from Asakusa Shrine. I don’t seem to have taken many photos there, though.)
Kamakura, Kanagawa
I thought I’d try the Kamakura Shichifukujin Meguri. This was (for me) stop number one, enshrining Fukurokujin. Not all of the stops on the Kamakura Shichifukujin Meguri are shrines and (spoiler alert) I actually ran out of time after the fourth stop, so this happaned to be the only Shichifukujin shrine I visited that day. Though not the only shrine.
Kamakura, Kanagawa
En route between stops two and three, I came across this place. I happened to come in via the back way, so it really felt like I’d discovered a secret shrine hidden in the mountains (though of course on the front side, there’s a big ol’ stairway connecting it to the road).
Kamakura, Kanagawa
Not too far from the previous shrine, this place’s main activity is the washing of money (it’s in the name, see?) in order to increase income and blessings and such. (I actually realised recently that I’d seen all of these last three shrines before I’d visited them, in the Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club anime.)
Kamakura, Kanagawa
This would have been stop number four on the Shichifukujin Meguri (stops two and three were temples), but as you can probably infer from the photo I’ve included, it was well and truly closed by the time I arrived. Gonna have to go back sometime so I can finish the route.
Aaaand this is proving to be a bit more time-consuming than I’d anticipated, so I’m gonna have to pause here and say
To Be Continued…
Do you remember if you walked through the hoop/ Chinowa Kuguri? 
I’d forgotten to look up the name before, but I’ll add it to tips now
I don’t really remember. Probably not. Even if I did, I almost certainly didn’t do the proper figure-eight route.
Though I just noticed that white square on the collection box in front of it is an information sign about how to do it right.
Well, maybe if you visit at the right time of year next time, you can do it then. Do you mind if I add your information picture to this post? ⛩ Japanese Shrine Appreciation Thread ⛩ - #3 by DIO-Berry
Sure, if you like, though it’s not the greatest of photos.
This visit was in December, incidentally. 
Thank you! it’s more detailed information than any boards I recall seeing. The ones I’ve seen are half drawings lol.
Oh odd that it was December! I guess I’ll have to research more about how long/when they’re put out.
