One rainy day in Asakusa

Asakusa was definitely on the top of our to-do list, right below Comiket 87 and themed coffee shops. The Kaminarimon Gate leading to Senso-ji temple is one of Tokyo’s most significant attractions and it is located in Asakusa. 

The following information is written on a board just outside the gate:

The Kaminarimon Gate ("thunder gate"), standing at the entrance to the processional road leading to Senso-ji, is Asakusa's most famous landmark. Inside the gate on either side are enormous wooden statues of the protective Buddhist deities Fujin (wind god) and Raijin (thunder god), from which the gate gets its name. The original gate was erected in 942 but burned down several times over the centuries. The one standing today was built in 1960, donated by Japanese entrepreneur Konosuke Matsushita (1894-1989).

It would’ve been interesting to see the Sanja Matsuri “Three Shrine Festival“ that is held annually during the third week of May but instead we had our fill of rain during our visit on December 29. And you would normally expect less crowd on a cold rainy day, but boy, was I wrong.

Upon entering the gate, you will see a huge line-up of souvenir shops that are selling Japanese goods at very expensive prices.

In between those you will find a lot of stores that are selling Japanese delicacies like dango or rice crackers, and who is not a big fan of spontaneous snacks?

The first store that we tried from was selling a rice flour product that was all gooey and soft inside but with a powdery texture on the outside, it is best eaten while drinking green tea. It had a hardly noticeable sweetness which I liked very much.

After finishing the snack we moved on to dango, that has inspired a manga, anime series, live-action series and a bunch of remakes.

Slowly but surely from a dango’s point of view we stumbled on to the next shop which was selling a rice product but this time with an interesting twist. A puffy bread with flavor on the inside. I ordered green tea flavor and my cousin went for apricot flavor. We also bought a couple of those red bags (bite-size bean-filled cake in different designs) that were on sale.

And my all time favorite, say hello to freshly cooked rice cracker (available with nori)!

After walking pass all those shops we decided to draw O-mikuji (fortune written on strips of paper) for a small 100 yen donation. See that metal box, you need to shake that very well and from that you will get a stick with a kanji symbol that determines from which of the boxes you will draw your fortune from. 

I unfortunately drew bad fortune. 

As per custom, I had to fold and tie that piece of paper on a wire and leave it there. (Leaving bad fortune behind). After that disappointment we stumbled on a different attraction.

An old lady was rubbing this very statue when we spotted it. My cousin asked her about it and she explained that the statue takes away pain of the body. First donate 5 yen and then start rubbing the statue. I rubbed the statue’s head and praid for my unpredictable migraine to go away forever. 

And then, there it was, the temple. Red, majestic and well restored.

It has definitely inspired me to pray.

All the pictures were taken by me with an Iphone 5. Original post was made in May under http://eatsbrainsforbreakfast.tumblr.com/