For anyone interested in visiting the Ise Grand Shrine in Mie Prefecture, take any information you find on the internet with a pinch of salt. Be sure to refer to many sites and cross reference information, calculate the mean, standard deviation and understand the variance well, and go with that. You do not want to run out of time to see everything you want to see, or miss your train home. However, do not get me wrong, spending a day walking around the Ise Grand Shrines is definitely worth it.
A day trip to the Ise Grand Shrine can be easily done from Nagoya, but you will have to accept that you will not be able to see all 125 connected shrines. The outer shrine, Geku, and the inner shrine, Naiku, are must-sees, and if you are interested in seeing a few more shrines over five or six hours, then maybe you can squeeze in three or four more. As a suggestion, do see Yamatohime Shrine and Tsukiyomi Shrine. In fact, if you are prepared to walk from shrine to shrine, rather than take a bus as most do, these two shrines lie between Geku and Naiku and so are reasonably easy to find. The walk, including stopping at these two shrines will take you about two hours.
If you do walk, take something to drink and maybe a snack or two. You will not find the plethora of convenience stores or vending machines that you do in and around major cities in Japan.
From Ise Station, it is a short walk to Geku. However, Naiku, the shrine that is recommended to be seen last, is far from any station. Allow yourself about 30 minutes to get from Naiku to a train station by bus or taxi. More than a hour will be required if you want to walk. If you are heading to Nagoya or Kyoto after your day at Ise Grand Shrine, make the return trip from Uji-yamada Station. A beautiful old station building that will further deplete the bytes on the SD card in your camera.
Enter Naiku from the car park. If you follow the main road you will miss the shopping street and the chance to buy all the goodies the family will be expecting when you get home. This is also worth a look as it has been built in an old-Japan style; even the Family Mart (convenience store) looks like it was built hundreds of years ago. This area is fairly crowded, and even on a week day, be prepared for a short wait to get lunch. But try the udon, the fat noodles in Ise are a little different from those found elsewhere in Japan.
Lastly, if you have done some research before you go, you will know that the Ise Grand Shrine is re-built every twenty years. So are all the connected shrines. Unfortunately, all shrines are built in the same design at the same time. They do tend to all look the same. Maybe visiting three of four is enough.
Ramblings and Ruminations 