Photos: Tomi Mäkitalo · CC BY-SA 3.0 (1, 3) · lienyuan lee · CC BY 3.0 (2, 4, 5)
Himuro Jinja was founded in 710 to protect the ice store that supplied the Nara court, and is still the shrine of Japan's ice-making and refrigeration trade. In summer (1 June to 31 August) you ask at the office, place a bowl of shaved pure ice on the offering stand before the hall, pray, and then eat it as the god's leftovers.
Why it's unique
The ritual and the ice-industry festival are specific to this shrine. There are other Himuro shrines in Japan, notably in Tenri, so this is a country-level claim held with less confidence than most.
Kakigori fans call Nara "the sacred place of ice", and the Himuro Shirayuki Matsuri kakigori festival grew out of this shrine.
Before you go
Syrup is free beside the office, and you rinse the bowl yourself afterwards. The kakigori offering is about ¥500, 9:00 to 16:00 in summer.
Year round, an ice omikuji shows its text only when laid on ice, and on the 1st of every month ice lanterns are lit at dusk. 1 May is Kenpyōsai, when ice companies from across Japan deliver giant ice pillars with flowers frozen in them.
