[ Dec.2014 ] Our friend said “How about going to the Kanda Shrine and drink Amazake (sweet beverage made from fermented rice or sake lees)?”, so we went there.
I have known the name of this shrine which is situated in Kanda in Tokyo, but this was the first time to visit there.
There are many famous places which we have never been even in our own town ( or the town we used to live in).
This shrine has got a stupendously long history of 1285 years and has got a connection with Taira-no-Masakado, a famous samurai in Heian Era (794 to 1185).
It just happend that when we arrived there, a traditoinal ceremony called Ooharae was about to start.
This ceremony is to dust all the sins and dirt we accumulated during a year.
Anyone seemed to be able to participate.
You pay some money and get a kind of collar.
You put it on and stand in the rows to listen to the white costumed Shinto priests’ ritual prayers and music.
We hesitated to take it, too, but we did not.
It was good that we did not, because it was too cold to see the ceremony to the end.
