Sensō-ji, is an ancient Buddhist temple in Asakusa. It is Tokyo's oldest-established temple, and one of its most significant. It is dedicated to Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion.
I'd like to say its a tranquil temple compared to the chaos of Tokyo around it but its not. Not because the amount of tourists although that helps with the chaos but because of the shops that line the path from the gate to the main hall.
You'll first step through the imposing Thunder Gate, or Kaminarimon, adorned with a massive red lantern, many touch it for good luck.
Once we made it through the shops and to the main hall we took a breather while listening to the monk chants, sounds of the fortune boxes rattling accompanied by the smell of incense. We decided to try our luck for the fortune boxes, named Omikuji (御御籤/御神籤/おみくじ).
+They are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Literally translated as "sacred lot", these are usually received by making a small offering and randomly choosing one from a box, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. Once you put your 100 yen in you pick up the metal box and shake it, then tip it. There's a small hole which lets one wooden stick out with a Kanji character for number. Then you open the drawer with the corresponding number and pull your fortune. We got bad fortune! We couldn't accept that outcome so tried our luck again, and got bad fortune again. Was not our day I guess. When you get bad fortune since you don't want to accept it you tie the bad fortune to the temple strings and strands this way your "leaving" your bad fortune behind at the temple and not bringing it into your life.
We spotted some food stalls to the side of the main hall, one of them being the cheese 10 Yen pastry, breaded good. Not sure what you'd call it. Justin got one, it was so hot and the stringiest cheese!
