Tokyo: Top 5 Temples & Shrines

1. GATOS Gōtoku-ji

   goh-toh-koo-jee. The temple of the lucky waving cat. Legend says a white cat beckoned a feudal lord inside just before a thunderstorm, and he became the temple's patron. Buy a maneki-neko figure and make a wish, and if it comes true, come back and leave your cat with the hundreds of others to say thanks.

2. Nezu Shrine

   neh-zoo. One of Tokyo's oldest shrines, said to be about 1,900 years old, with a tunnel of red torii gates winding up the hill to a small fox shrine. It's like Kyoto's Fushimi Inari, Tokyo-size. Free to visit, and in April and early May the hillside fills with thousands of azaleas.

3. Zojo-ji

   zoh-joh-jee. A grand Buddhist temple where six Tokugawa shoguns are buried, with Tokyo Tower rising right behind its main hall. Stand at the Sangedatsumon gate, built in 1622 and one of Tokyo's oldest wooden structures, and you get 400 years of Tokyo in one photo.

4. Meiji Jingu

   may-jee jeen-goo. A Shinto shrine to Emperor Meiji, set in a 70-hectare forest in the middle of Tokyo that was planted by 110,000 volunteers with trees donated from all over Japan. Walk under the great torii, made from a 1,500-year-old cypress, and past the French wine barrels across from the sake barrels, because the emperor loved French wine. The gates close at sunset.

5. Sensō-ji

   sen-soh-jee. Tokyo's oldest temple, founded in 628 after two fishermen pulled a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, out of the Sumida River. That statue has been hidden since 645, and nobody has seen it since. Shake the box for an omikuji fortune (¥100), and if you draw bad luck (about 3 in 10 do), tie it to the rack and leave it behind.