Guide · Akihabara

Shrine and Temple Etiquette in Japan: How to Visit Without Guessing — A Tokyo Tour Guide's Step-by-Step

Shrines are Shinto and temples are Buddhist. The visible difference in behaviour is that at a shrine you clap, and at a temple you do not. At both, you rinse your hands at the water basin if one is available, walk in calmly, offer a coin of any amount if you want to, keep your voice down, and treat the place as somewhere people genuinely worship — because they do, every day.

Almost every first-time visitor I guide is nervous about this one, and almost nobody needs to be. Nobody expects a foreign visitor to know the sequence. What people do notice is volume, cameras, and whether you seem to understand that this is not a museum.

How do I tell a shrine from a temple?

Look at the gate. A shrine has a torii — two uprights with two crossbars, often vermilion or plain wood — and usually a pair of guardian animal statues. A temple has a heavier roofed gate, often with fierce guardian figures, an incense burner, and frequently a pagoda. Shrine names commonly end in -jinja, -jingū or -taisha; temple names in -ji, -dera or -in.

Many sites have both on the same grounds, because the two traditions co-existed for over a thousand years before being formally separated in the nineteenth century. If you cannot tell, watching what the person in front of you does is a perfectly good method.

What do I do at the entrance?

At a shrine, bow once lightly before passing through the torii, and walk to one side of the path rather than straight down the middle, which is traditionally reserved for the deity. At a temple, a small bow at the gate is the equivalent. Neither is enforced and neither is complicated.

Then look for the water basin, the temizuya, near the entrance. If it is set up for use, the sequence is:

1. Take the ladle in your right hand, scoop water once — one scoop does the whole thing.
2. Rinse your left hand.
3. Swap hands, rinse your right hand.
4. Pour a little into your cupped left hand, rinse your mouth from the hand (not from the ladle), and spit quietly beside the basin, not into it.
5. Tip the ladle upright to let the remaining water run down the handle, and return it face down.

Important and often out of date online: many basins had their ladles removed during the pandemic, and a number of sites have kept the change or replaced them with running water or flower displays. If there are no ladles, just rinse your hands under the spout, or skip it. Do not go looking for equipment that is not there.

How do I pray at a shrine?

The common sequence is two bows, two claps, one bow — nirei nihakushu ichirei. Toss a coin into the offering box first, ring the bell if there is a rope, then bow twice deeply, clap twice with your hands slightly offset, hold your hands together for a moment for your thought, then bow once more.

The claps are said to be a greeting to the deity, and the pause between them is where the actual thought goes. There is no required wording, no prescribed length, and nothing you have to say out loud.

Worth knowing: a small number of major shrines use their own sequence — Izumo Taisha is the well-known example, where four claps are customary. Larger shrines usually post their own instructions on a board near the hall, often in English. If a sign contradicts this article, follow the sign.

How do I pray at a temple?

No clapping. Offer a coin, bow, put your palms together in front of your chest, hold for a moment, then bow again. If there is a large incense burner, you may light a stick, place it upright in the ash, and waft some of the smoke towards yourself — it is traditionally associated with health and purification.

Temples often have more to interact with: a big bell you should not ring unless invited to, a hall you may be able to enter after removing your shoes (see where you take your shoes off), and sometimes an inner sanctuary with a separate admission fee.

How much money should I put in the offering box?

There is no set amount and no expectation, from anybody. Any coin is fine, and not offering anything is also fine. The five-yen coin is a popular choice because go-en is a pun on a word for a good connection or fate — that is a piece of wordplay, not a rule, and nobody is checking.

Toss the coin in gently rather than throwing it. Notes are unusual and unnecessary. Paid items — charms, wooden plaques, written blessings — have their prices displayed, and those are a normal transaction rather than a donation.

Can I take photos?

Exteriors and grounds are usually fine. Interiors of halls, and anything with a no-photography sign, usually are not. Never photograph a ceremony, a funeral, a wedding party or an individual worshipper without permission — these are private moments in a public place. Drones and tripods are prohibited at many sites.

The general principle is in the full photography etiquette guide. The specific principle here: if a person is praying, you are looking at someone's private moment, not at a photo opportunity.

Things that quietly matter

• Volume. Grounds are for calm, and this is the thing tour groups most often get wrong.
• Hats off at the main hall is a courteous touch, though not universally observed.
• Do not eat or drink while walking around the grounds.
• Do not sit or lean on stone monuments, gravestones or the offering box.
• Graveyards attached to temples are working cemeteries. Walk through quietly and do not photograph individual graves.
• The charm you buy is traditionally kept for about a year and returned to a shrine to be respectfully burned, rather than thrown away. Many shrines have a collection box for this.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to be Shinto or Buddhist to visit? No. Shrines and temples are open to everyone, including tourists and people with no religion. Doing the sequence respectfully is not a religious claim; it is treating someone else's sacred space the way they do.

Is it OK if I get the order wrong? Yes. Nobody is counting your claps, and staff will not correct you. Being quiet and unhurried matters far more than the count.

What if there is a long queue at the offering box? Keep your turn short — a coin, the sequence, and step aside. At a busy shrine at New Year the queue can be enormous and everyone keeps it brief.

Should I write on one of the wooden plaques? The ema plaques are for anyone, and writing a wish and hanging it is a completely normal thing for a visitor to do. Write it in any language; they are hung publicly, so assume it will be read.

Can I go inside the buildings? Sometimes. Where an interior is open to visitors there will be an entrance, an admission desk or a shoe shelf. If there is no obvious way in, there is no way in.

Practise the sequence once, in person

Doing this once with someone next to you removes the entire anxiety. My Tokyo First Day Tour: Japanese Manners & Survival Class starts in Asakusa, which means a real temple is part of your first or second morning in Japan — the water basin, the incense, the offering, and the difference between a shrine and a temple explained standing in front of both.

Everything else you will meet on day one is mapped here: Japanese etiquette: a complete guide for first-time visitors.

About the author. I am Yuuki, a Japanese teacher and tour guide in Tokyo. I run small-group tours in English most weeks, rated 4.96★ on Airbnb, and I have watched over 1,500 anime series — which is how most of my guests find me. I take visitors to these places most weeks, and I still learn a local variation every few months.

See the Akihabara anime tour →

Sources: Jinja Honcho (Association of Shinto Shrines), Entering a Jinja; Japan National Tourism Organization, Shrine & Temple Visits — Best Practices.