→ The Worn Buddha — At the Asakusa Shrine just east of the main hall, look for the small bronze Buddha at ground level. Its head and shoulders are polished smooth by millions of hands reaching down to touch it — a physical record of devotion that no plaque describes.

→ The Nakamise Lintels — The shopping street's stalls are rebuilt every few years, but the original 18th-century stone gutter covers survive at the edges of the path. Each is carved with a different geometric pattern identifying the merchant family that maintained that section.

→ The Incense Basin — Visitors waive smoke from the giant bronze incense burner onto their heads and bodies. The burner itself is original 17th-century work by the same foundry that cast Edo Castle's bells. The dragon-and-cloud pattern around its rim is a direct copy of a Kamakura-era design.

→ The Sake and Wine Barrels — Rows of wooden sake barrels on one side and wine barrels on the other flank the approach. The sake is donated annually by breweries nationwide; the wine barrels were donated by the Burgundy region of France in homage to the emperor's taste for Western culture — he drank Bordeaux with formal meals.

→ The Wish Trees — Visitors write wishes on wooden ema plaques and hang them on designated racks. Unlike most shrines, Meiji Jingu's ema are shaped like a five-pointed star — the crest of the Meiji imperial house.

→ The Iris Garden — A separate garden fee grants access to the inner iris garden, planted with 1,500 irises of 150 varieties. The empress herself is said to have walked these paths after the garden was modelled on the iris fields of the Fukuoka countryside where she spent her childhood.

→ The Hyakunin Guardhouse — The 50-metre-long guardhouse near the entrance was manned by four elite gunner units drawn from the Iga and Koga regions — the same clans that trained the ninja. Their descendants manned this post every day for 260 years.

→ The Otemon Gate — The inner Koraimon gate is one of very few original Edo-period structures standing in Tokyo. The masugata (fortified courtyard) between the outer and inner gates was designed to trap attackers so they could be fired on from three sides.

→ The Ninomaru Garden — Designed in 1636 by Kobori Enshu, Japan's most celebrated garden master, this pond garden was restored in 1968 from original Edo-period blueprints. The pond contains rare long-finned carp released by the emperor emeritus in 2018.

→ The Tokugawa Mausoleum — Six Tokugawa shoguns are buried in the mausoleum behind the main hall, their graves marked by stone pagodas of diminishing size. The entrance path is lined with 50 bronze lanterns donated by feudal lords.

→ The Gate Carvings — Look up at the underside of the Sangedatsumon gate. The wooden bracket complexes (dougong) are held together entirely by interlocking joinery — not a single metal fastener was used in the original 1622 construction.

→ The Jizo Statues — The rows of Jizo statues wear red caps and bibs. Red is the colour of protection in Buddhist tradition. Parents leave pinwheels beside them — the spinning represents the cycle of life and death, and the sound is said to comfort lost children.

→ The Anime Ema — Alongside traditional wooden plaques, the shrine sells ema for anime fans and programmers. Many bear hand-drawn characters from series set in Akihabara, making this one of the few shrines where pop culture offerings outnumber traditional ones.

→ The Zuishin Gate — The two-storey vermilion gate was rebuilt in 1995. The archery windows on the upper floor are not decorative — during the Edo period, shrine guards used them to defend the approach during civil disturbances.

→ The Kien Hyojin-seki — A stone monument near the main hall, known for reuniting lost relatives. Visitors who have lost contact with family members rub the stone and tie a strip of paper to the surrounding fence.

→ The Plum Garden — The shrine's ume (plum) trees were planted in a specific pattern: early, mid, and late bloomers ensure continuous colour from February through March. The oldest tree is said to have been planted by Michizane himself — a cutting from his favourite tree in Dazaifu.

→ The Azalea Sequencing — The hillside azaleas are planted in elevation zones: early bloomers near the bottom, mid-season in the middle, late-season at the top. This means the 'wave' of colour moves upward over six weeks as each zone hits peak simultaneously.

→ The Stone Lanterns — Over 100 stone lanterns line the approach paths, each donated by a different Edo-period merchant guild. The oldest bear dates from 1706 — the year the shrine was rebuilt.

→ The Karamon Gate — The gate's lower panels are carved with lions, peonies, and phoenixes — each animal chosen for its symbolic role in the Chinese zodiac and Buddhist cosmology. The undersides of the eaves bear dragon carvings with five claws, a privilege reserved for buildings dedicated to a shogun.

→ The Peony Garden — The shrine's peony garden blooms twice a year — winter peonies from January to February and spring peonies from April to May. Winter peonies are protected from snow by individual conical straw hats tied to each plant, a traditional technique.

→ The Tokugawa Graves — Six Tokugawa shoguns are buried in the Kan'ei-ji mausoleum, their tombs marked by bronze pagodas. The path is lined with stone chozubachi (water basins) donated by each shogun's widow — their family crests are carved into the stone.