We visited on a sunny day. We were introduced to water cleansing at the start and walked through peaceful grounds with beautiful old trees. The shrines were explained to us and everyone was very respectful. It was an enchanting morning

We saw a ‘free tour guide’ sign at Ise City Tourist Information Center across from the entrance of Gekū and decided to go for it. It was the best decision ever. I’d recommend it to all Japanese speakers who are visiting Gekū for the first time to take advantage of this service. Our guide was enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. He taught us all the basic shrine etiquettes in addition to some interesting facts regarding Jingū - about how each shrine is rebuilt every 20 years, what happens to the building materials afterwards, how the members of the royal family visit Jingū, etc. Our visit wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting without the guide.

Ise is home to the Ise Shrines (Ise Jingu), Japan's most sacred Shinto shrines. 伊勢神宮is actually a large number of Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, Naikū (内宮) and Gekū (外宮).
The Geku (also officially known as "Toyouke Daijingū") or 外宮 is just near the JR station, a mere 10 mins walk. Geku is dedicated to Toyo'uke-no-Omikami, who is believed to be the guardian of three essentials of human life, cloth, food and shelter, and of the industries
Signs for Ise Jingu Shrine Geku are placed strategically to guide and one needs walk for awhile straight down the street to arrive at the first of Ise Jingu’s two important locations.
Most workshippers starts Visit to the shrines from here.
Always packed with people there’s the Hiyoke-bashi Bridge to cross (火除橋), the entrance to the newly rebuilt Gekū shrine. Next will be the modern Sengukan Hall on the left. After washing your hands at the Chozuya (Place for ritual cleansing of the hands), we walked the gravel path in the forest for about 5 minutes to reach the main shrine. In addition to the main shrine, there are others shrines that enshrine other gods. We strolled about and prayed at a few shrines…
Once you have visited the Main Sanctuary, visit the associated shrines
Like the Naiku Inner Shrine, the main shrine building of each is completely rebuilt once every 20 years, and this was done in 2013
We exited the premise and approached the bus stop to take transport to the Naikū (内宮) after spending more than an hour here.
Impressive.