Praying at a Buddhist temple

I usually pray for annual good luck at the same shrine (as I mentioned before), but this year I had to go to a Buddhist temple in Kawasaki city (next to Tokyo) to take my old fortune slip back there. So I made up my mind to pray there too. You may wonder whether it is ok to pray to both the Japanese ancient gods and Buddha but I think it’s no problem because for Japanese Praying on New Year’s Day is like an expression of our appreciation for others (not only the god, and Buddha but also people around me).

The temple is called “Kawasaki-daishi”, whose name comes from the city name. This temple is so huge and famous that a lot of people pray there every year. This is the main gate of the temple.

And here is a view from inside of the gate. Though New Year’s holidays were over (generally New Year’s holidays is January 1st to 3rd), it was so crowded.

This is the people behind me who are also waiting to pray…

After that, I returned my old fortune slip successfully. When we return fortune slips to a temple (or a shrine) we usually tie it to a rope which is prepared by the temple. I failed to take that picture regrettably but anyway, I achieved my aim.