Asakusa Temples and Shops
We visited Asakusa's Sensoji (Asakusa Kannon Temple) and its surrounding areas today. It was a beautiful day (in the mid 60s) and a gorgeous day for roaming around outside.
On the downside, I don't think we could have picked a worse day for visiting, crowd-wise. The place was packed with locals and tourists alike. Today was the first official holiday of Golden Week, so everyone was out in droves.
We exited the Ginza subway line sloooooowly behind a crowd of people and followed the crowds to the temple area. You enter through the Kaminarimon entrance gate and continue walking into the shopping district.
The smoke rising up is from incense (see photo on the left, below). If you stand in the smoke from burning incense at the temple, it is supposed to bring you good health. People wave the smoke towards themselves, or get it on their hands, and rub it on their skin.
At the entrance to every Shinto shrine there is a water well or fountain (see photo on the right), at which visitors are meant to go through a ritual purification rite by washing their hands, and rinsing their mouths, using water from the well. The water is picked up with the scoop in one hand, poured over the other, then the process reversed. Then a small sip of water is taken, and the mouth rinsed. Then the scoop is washed and placed back on the side of the well, or on a rack if one is provided.
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The shopping area is full of foods and snacks, toys, souvenirs, clothing, fans, etc. If it's Japanese, you can find it here somewhere. On one side of the street you can buy a freshly made (warm) rice cracker for 100yen (kind of like how much we all like warm Krispy Kremes, I guess?). On the other side, you may be able to catch a glimpse of numerous Thomas the Tank Engine toys intermingled with Anpanman toys and characters. Next shop, you may see handmade fans of different sizes and textures. It's an amazing sight, yet much more enjoyable when you can cross the "street" without being pushed along.
Through Nakamise Shopping Street, there are multiple food vendors selling their wares. Many of them offer different types of yakitori (on a stick) as seen below. The photo on the right shows a chocolate and strawberry covered bananas on a stick. The third picture is of a HUGE rice cracker.
We strolled along, stopping at shops that caught our eye. I was searching for a a summer outfit for Andrew called a jinbei. A jinbei is a kind of traditional Japanese clothing worn by men and children during the summer. Jinbei sets consist of a top and matching shorts. We came across many, all of different costs. We finally settled on one for 2100 yen that was navy blue with white children "ninjas" all over. The material is lightweight, perfect for the warm weather, and really brings out the japanese in Andrew (in case you couldn't already tell). We also purchased a pair of Zori (Japanese flip-flops, pretty much) for Andrew.
Around the corner, there was a monkey doing tricks.
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From punk to traditional, we saw younger Japanese walking down the street with green hair, and in the same sight may have seen women dressed in elegant kimono.
Various other sights... (2nd photo: one of many restaurants on the side of the street; 3rd photo: a rickshaw carrying two people around the Asakusa area).
On the downside, I don't think we could have picked a worse day for visiting, crowd-wise. The place was packed with locals and tourists alike. Today was the first official holiday of Golden Week, so everyone was out in droves.
We exited the Ginza subway line sloooooowly behind a crowd of people and followed the crowds to the temple area. You enter through the Kaminarimon entrance gate and continue walking into the shopping district.
The smoke rising up is from incense (see photo on the left, below). If you stand in the smoke from burning incense at the temple, it is supposed to bring you good health. People wave the smoke towards themselves, or get it on their hands, and rub it on their skin.
At the entrance to every Shinto shrine there is a water well or fountain (see photo on the right), at which visitors are meant to go through a ritual purification rite by washing their hands, and rinsing their mouths, using water from the well. The water is picked up with the scoop in one hand, poured over the other, then the process reversed. Then a small sip of water is taken, and the mouth rinsed. Then the scoop is washed and placed back on the side of the well, or on a rack if one is provided.
If the video does not display properly
click here to upgrade to Flash 8
If the video does not display properly
click here to upgrade to Flash 8
The shopping area is full of foods and snacks, toys, souvenirs, clothing, fans, etc. If it's Japanese, you can find it here somewhere. On one side of the street you can buy a freshly made (warm) rice cracker for 100yen (kind of like how much we all like warm Krispy Kremes, I guess?). On the other side, you may be able to catch a glimpse of numerous Thomas the Tank Engine toys intermingled with Anpanman toys and characters. Next shop, you may see handmade fans of different sizes and textures. It's an amazing sight, yet much more enjoyable when you can cross the "street" without being pushed along.
Through Nakamise Shopping Street, there are multiple food vendors selling their wares. Many of them offer different types of yakitori (on a stick) as seen below. The photo on the right shows a chocolate and strawberry covered bananas on a stick. The third picture is of a HUGE rice cracker.
We strolled along, stopping at shops that caught our eye. I was searching for a a summer outfit for Andrew called a jinbei. A jinbei is a kind of traditional Japanese clothing worn by men and children during the summer. Jinbei sets consist of a top and matching shorts. We came across many, all of different costs. We finally settled on one for 2100 yen that was navy blue with white children "ninjas" all over. The material is lightweight, perfect for the warm weather, and really brings out the japanese in Andrew (in case you couldn't already tell). We also purchased a pair of Zori (Japanese flip-flops, pretty much) for Andrew.
Around the corner, there was a monkey doing tricks.
If the video does not display properly
click here to upgrade to Flash 8
If the video does not display properly
click here to upgrade to Flash 8
From punk to traditional, we saw younger Japanese walking down the street with green hair, and in the same sight may have seen women dressed in elegant kimono.
Various other sights... (2nd photo: one of many restaurants on the side of the street; 3rd photo: a rickshaw carrying two people around the Asakusa area).
posted by Rachel :-) | 5:07 PM
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