Suitengu

On an ordinary weekday Suitengu takes five minutes. On a dog day it can take all morning. The shrine is where Tokyo goes to pray for a safe birth, and the custom is to come on a day of the dog, which falls every 12 days in the zodiac calendar, around the fifth month of pregnancy, because dogs are believed to give birth easily. It started in 1818 as the private shrine of the Arima lords of Kurume in Kyushu, inside their Edo mansion; people threw coins over the wall until the lord opened the gates on the 5th of each month. It moved here in 1872. The 2016 rebuild put the whole precinct on a seismic-isolation platform one storey up, with the car park underneath, so you reach the hall by stairs or a gentle ramp. The amulet is unusual: a 5 m length of plain cotton belly band, blessed at dawn on dog days. A prayer starts at 10,000 yen, or 12,000 yen with the band. On dog days only the pregnant woman and one or two adults may enter the hall. Rub your zodiac sign on the bronze Kodakara Inu dog statue on the way out. Cameras other than phones need an advance permit.