Just the Beginning: Asakusa and Shibuya

Over the Christmas break my boyfriend's brother came to visit in Japan, like I've probably mentioned before. Well, while he was here my boyfriend wanted to take him around Tokyo, and they asked me if I wanted to go with them one day, so I decided to go. That day we went to Sensoji in Asakusa (a Buddhist temple) and we accidentally missed our train stop on the way back home and ended up in Shibuya, so we decided to make an impromptu visit to the famous intersection outside of the train station before we headed back.

Here are pictures of Sensoji. It was very very commercialized. It was actually rather ridiculous.

This is the main entrance gate. Afterwards there is this long avenue just lined with tourist trap shops. It's really rather gaudy. A Shinto shrine would never be like that.

This is a pagoda next to the main temple.

In front of the main temple, like all Buddhist temples, there is this little stand thing. You're supposed to swish the smoke over your head with your hand to make you smarter.

And here is the actual inside of the temple. You're supposed to go inside and throw your money offering into the slot thingy and then clap twice and pray.

Then they have little shops inside the temple that sell omamori, or charms. This was their selection. They sell charms for fertility, to get a wish, for studying, and so on.

And then you're supposed to go over to a little stall where they sell fortunes. You put in 100 yen in the slot and then you grab a long metal box and shake it. There are thin wooden sticks inside with numbers on them. You shake the box and get one out of the tiny hole at the top of the box. You read the number and go to the drawer with that number on it. You open up the drawer and take the paper out. And that is your fortune. Mine was alright.

And then we walked around outside of the temple and we found a kabuki theater. These are some handprints of Kabuki actors and pictures on the outside of the theater. And a shop near the theater.