The destination of our school trip was Ise in Mie prefecture. The area that consists of 125 jinjas is known as Jingu. We visited two of the jinjas, first of them being Geku which is dedicated to Toyo'uke-no-Omikami , the guardian of well-being. It was an arboreous place that had some seriously huge trees which would lend you their divine energy if you'd pet them. I petted them a lot. Got enough energy to write a blog post about it (the following day haha).

The actual shrines were too holy to be photographed: they had policemen patroling about, making sure the toursists don't get too ballsy and try snapping photos where there's no snapping.

According to the pamphlet I got, Naiku is "the most venerable sancturary in Japan", dedicated to Amatersu-Omikami - she's the boss of the deities, a guardian of Japan. The place was really pretty and had a calm, relaxing athmposhere with the river running trough the area and mountains embracing it from each side. 

One somewhat crazy feature about these places was that just next to the divine place, there was an empty stone lot: for when the building would have to be re-built, as is done every 20 years, to ensure that it stays pure.

Okay so this isn't a shrine but it was on the same trip so...!

This shopping area, located right next to the Naiku sanctuary, was built using the architecture of Meiji and Edo periods, so it has a magical old-times athmospehre to it. The streets are narrow and the houses tiny and made of wood; without all the tourists swarming around you could imagine being sent back in time.

Not the place for clothes shopping, but great for souvenirs & food tasting! I bought some belly ache medicine that has a history of 600 years, according to the salesperson. :D