Who's a cool cat? Me me me me meow~ Gotokuji Temple 豪徳寺 is famous for having tons and tons of waving cats called maneki-neko 招き猫.
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It's a 12-minute walk from Odakyu's Gotokuji Station which is just 15 minutes from Shinjuku on trains bound for Hon-Atsugi 本厚木. It's much closer to Tokyu Line's Miyanosaka Station 宮の坂.
Exit Gotokuji Station & walk left past Famima along a small shopping street with cat flags. Keep walking for a few minutes then along the railway tracks for a bit. Turn left when you reach the small railway crossing then right where you'll see a small sign/map (there appeared to be no signs pointing to the temple before this). Walk through the residential path then left (before hitting the main street where Miyanosaka Station is). This medium-sized temple will be on your left. It was very peaceful on a weekday afternoon and you probably won't need more than 20 minutes here. You can get cat statues of varying sizes from 300 yen to 5000 yen nicely boxed for you. There were a lot of mosquitoes where the cats are so probably a good idea not to wear a skirt - I got like 8 bites within a 5-minute span. Still worth it though. |
temple grounds |
ema 絵馬 for 800 yen each |
| o t h e r c u t e l i t t l e s h r i n e s i n T o k y o |
 Cute Fox Shrine |
 Torii Gates Shrine |
