Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan, Part III

And here we are, the last of the pictures from my short trip to Tokyo.

These are from around the area of Sensō-ji temple, down the nearby side streets.

Leaving the temple area

There were many shops along the street.  The ones on the side I was standing on here were mostly closed.  The opened ones housed traditional papers, inks, and paintbrushes; traditional Japanese dress; restaurants; and old pictures or books.

Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan, Part II

Here is the second of three posts of my picture collection from Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan.  These pictures here are still from the grounds of Sensō-ji temple.

This five-story pagoda was built in 942!

Unfortunately, with no guide and no informational plaques, I had no ideas what I was taking pictures of.

These are ema  絵馬.  Wishes are written on these wooden plaques and left in hopes of fulfillment.  Many of the wishes are usually for good health.  I know in Korea, a lot of the older Buddhists would pray for their children and grandchildren to get good grades in school.
Beneath the ema are omijuki.  They are fortune telling strips.  They can be purchased at the shrine and, at this temple, are tied to a metal rack.  If the fortune tells of coming bad luck, the hope is that the bad luck will wait by the rack instead of coming to the fortune receiver.  And if you tie a good luck fortune to the line, the idea is that by waiting on the line, the good luck will become more potent.

An information booth that was closed for the day

I know this one!  (Thank you, internet.)  This is a torii (鳥居).  They are used to mark an entrance to a sacred place.

 

Holy water from the fountain is used for purification.  Worshipers will wash their mouths out with the water.

Another torii
The rope across the lower beam is called shimenawa.  It uses braided rice straw rope and those zig-zag pieces of paper called shide.  They are used for blessing, purification, and to ward off evil spirits.

The main hall of the temple

Another fountain of purifying water
This one is almost directly in front of the temple's main hall.  The water comes out of dragon statues.  Dragons are cool.

And that is my tour of the Sensō-ji temple.  I learned everything I typed about it just now with help from the internet.
I really want to go back to this place, to any place in Japan really, and go with someone who knows what we're looking at.  I missed out on so many things, and while I loved taking in the beautiful sights, I wish I could have learned along the way.

Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan, Part I

I asked my contact at work to see if it were possible for me to have a long layover through Tokyo on my way back to America.  He managed to give me 30 hours in Japan!  With only a week before arriving and no plan, I asked my friend JiHyeon if she had any ideas about a good schedule for someone wanting to see the city of Tokyo and not just the airport area of Narita.  JiHyeon lived in Tokyo for a few years and was more than happy to give me a travel agent's 2-day guide to Tokyo.

I will post that guide in the following days, JiHyeon really did a great job, but for now I'm going to show you pictures of the only part of that schedule that I checked out.  I was thoroughly exhausted by the time I landed at Narita, Japan, and after dealing with a completely foreign language, subway system, and communication style, I was ready to just relax for a while when I got to my hostel (K's House; recommended) in Asakusa, Tokyo.

I slept like a rock after a night of chilling with a book and playing UNO with a group of traveling Australians.  The next morning, I felt up to walking down the street to visit the street shops and the Buddhist shrine and temple nearby, 浅草寺, Sensō-ji.

This is the view from the street.  Not bad, eh?
This is Kaminarimon, 雷門, the Thunder Gate.  The god of wind and the god of thunder are depicted in the right and left side of the gate, respectively.  On the opposite side of the gate are statues of the god Tenryū and Kinryū.