Omiya Hachiman

There’s a big Shinto shrine close to where I live. It’s not so close to becoming omnipresent in my daily walks and fading in the background.

It’s a place that still retains a magic aura, something that attracts me when I pass by on my way back home.

Today it happened again. I had to get off my bicycle to feel the enchanting calm of the place falling into the quiet night.

The trees surrounding the Shrine make you forget that you are in the center of a huge metropolis. Shintoism teaches that everything participates in life, everything is immersed in it. The gods, reside in the mountains, which is why prayers are addressed to nature, but nature is also between the cement-hive of Tokyo.