Have you ever seen this beautiful and serene shrine as shown on picture below on your favorite dorama?

This particular stair appear on Yamada Taro Monogatari (starring: Arashi’s Ninomiya and Sakurai), My Boss My Hero (starring: TOKIO’s Nagase, ex-KATTUN’s Tanaka, and NEWS’s Tegoshi), and Nobuta wo Produce (starring: Yamashita Tomohisa, KATTUN’s Kamenashi, Hey!Say!JUMP’s Nakajima). Even though only for a few seconds, but the stair was memorable. In fact, it dubbed as Tokyo’s stairway to Heaven. 

This shrine is located in the heart of busy Tokyo, hidden from the skyscrapers. To get there, start you quest from Kamiyacho Station exit 3 then turn left and walk toward Atago Tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, you’ll find an elevator which will bring you to the shrine.

The elevator also will bring you to NHK Broadcast Museum. Too bad when we arrived there, it was under renovation work. There’s also another way to the shrine, but the elevator will save you some energy as it’s located up on a hill. To give you an idea how high it is, the elevator ride is about 1,5 minutes. But if you chose to ditch the elevator, you can just walk pass it and then turn right at the intersection.

It was really quiet, shady from the trees, and peaceful. We felt a little bit awkward at first as it seems the shrine serve for prayer only. Initially we planned to reenact some of dorama scenes, but we canceled the plan as we afraid we would bothered the prayers.

Inside, you can write your wish on ema. You can also see a Koi fish pond or eat at the restaurant.

We didn’t climb the stairs because a kind Japanese lady suggested us to take other route instead. She said the stair is too steep and slippery. But do you know that the legend said that if you succeeded climb this staircase would bring you success in life. Hence the staircase’s name is Shussei no Ishiden (stone staircase of success).

Anyway, we’re happy enough to successfully find this place. The surrounding is really beautiful, no wonder many dramas have shot here.

What: Atago Shrine
Where: 5-3 Atago 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo [map]
How to go: Kamiyacho Station of Hibiya Line or Onarimon Station of  Toei Mita Line.
How much: free, just pay for the train fare

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Versi Bahasa Indonesia

Ada yang inget pernah liat tangga ini di salah satu scene drama favorit kamu? *tunjuk gambar paling atas*

Yang pernah nonton Yamada Taro Monogatari, My Boss My Hero atau Nobuta wo Produce pasti deh samar-samar inget. Soalnya berdasarkan ingatan yang samar-samar (tapi berkesan) itulah yang membawa kami mencari letak si tangga legendaris ini.

Ternyata letaknya ada di tengah-tengah distrik bisnis Tokyo, tersembunyi di antara gedung-gedung pencakar langit. Untuk ke kuil ini, kamu bisa memulai perjalanan dari stasiun Kamiyacho (ambil exit 3) trus belok kiri dan jalan terus sampai menemukan terowongan. Di ujung terowongan ada elevator yang akan membawa kamu ke Kuil Atago. Kalo naik elevator ini, lumayan menghemat tenaga kamu untuk sampai ke atas bukit letak Kuil Atago. Ada juga sih rute lain dengan melewati jalanan menanjak ga jauh dari elevator itu.

Begitu nyampe di Kuil Atago, terasa banget suasana tenang dan rindang. Saking terlalu tenang, kami yang tadinya mau ambil gambar buat video jadi mengurungkan niat karena takut mengganggu yang lagi berdoa. Rencana lari-lari sambil naikin tangga kuil juga gagal gegara ngeliat orang2 yang akan naik/turun tangga pada membungkukkan badan menghormat gitu. Ya kali kita ga tau diri lari-lari di tempat suci…. Pas lagi galau mau naikin tangga apa ngga, ada ibu2 yang nyamperin ngasih tau kalo mending ambil jalan lain aja karena tangganya terlalu terjal dan licin. Padahal legenda mengatakan kalau kita sukses naikin tangga itu, maka kita juga bakalan sukses dalam hidup ala Mario Teguh.  Makanya tangga itu dinamain Shussei no Ishiden (stone staircase of success).

Yah, walaupun kami gagal nyoba naik tangga itu, tapi paling ngga kami sukses nemuin Kuil Atago. Pemandangannya yang indah emang pantas untuk jadi tempat syuting banyak dorama.