The magnificent powers of ASAKUSA

After the trip to Tsukiji, we headed off to Asakusa!

Asakusa is the place you MUST visit in Tokyo.

We really regretted not visiting Asakusa during our previous trips.

It's like the japanese version of Thai Bai Long Wang.


the map of Asakusa area.




this is the famous Kaminarimon 雷門 gate!

This is an entrance that ultimately leads to Sensoji Temple which is the oldest and the most significant temple in JAPAN~ Kelly is now the extreme believer of Sensoji temple. wahaha!

shall elaborate on it later =D




photographs we took while waiting to cross the road

and once we crossed the road, we become very tourist-ish!





taking photos...









and we just couldn't stop commenting how pretty the whole street was..







it was all decorated with SAKURA (fake ones though)



The street with a long stretch of shops from the Kaminarimon to Sensoji is Nakamise-dōri (仲見世通り).
They sell various things ranging from Omiyage (souvenirs), traditional foods, lucky charms to idols' photographs!

As we were there fairly early, many shops were not opened yet.

However, it doesn't mean that there's nothing for us to see...

cause even the gates are art pieces~~














so i should say that we are quite lucky to be able to see all these beautiful paintings on the wall. hahaha


random: a unique looking toilet on the street! hahah



and there's a kindergarden near the temple.

isn't it great to study in such beautiful places?



and at the end of the nakamise-dori, you will see the magnificent SENSOJI~~

the pagoda and another gate that leads to the sensoji~

the big "slipper" is donated by one of the perfecture. i guess it's because it's really very accurate?


Sensoji. It's under renovation at the moment but even the painting on the wall explicits the magnificence of the great temple.


there's alot of mikuji "station" around the temple.
mikuji is something like the chinese's QIAN. It's the fortune written on stripes of paper that will tell your luck.


there's also a Jizo statue near the temple.

but before you can enter Sensoji temple, you will need to purify yourselves.


a cute illustration that shows how to purify yourselves


first, you need to use your right hand to hold the Hishaku (the holder?) and then pour the water on your left hand to wash it.


Next, you hold the hishaku with your left hand and wash your right hand.


Then you hold the hishaku with your right hand and pour water on your left hand. Gaggle your mouth with the water on your left hand.


Lastly, pour the water away and then put the hishaku back to their original position.

and now, you're purified and you can enter the temple~!

but there's something that you must do first =)))))

In Japan, it's very common to find people gathering around the kouro (incense burner) to fan incense smoke to themselves.

it's believed that the incense smoke has magical effects and would bring that good luck and health.


fan fan~ give me good health~


fan ah fan~ give me good luck~! huat ah! (huat ah => chinese way haha)

then we entered the temple, prayed and then it's OMIKUJI time~


First, you need to donate 100yen.


then shake the container until one lot comes out.

on the lot, there will be a number.
You just need to draw the number from the drawers to know your luck.

Kelly got a 凶 (kyo) which means it's not very good and i got a 吉 (kichi) which is good.

I must say it's really accurate, well at least for Kelly.

When she was praying, she was focusing on one thing -- STUDIES.

Then when she read the lot, she was shocked!

as the first line of her results was, " your studies..."

O_O omg! it's not a general result but the god really answered her question!

we totally freaked out when we saw this and then we went into a frantic of buying lucky charms from the temple.

We got like 8 charms from the temple and it's not cheap... (. .) but it's definitely worthed.

and by the way, if you get a bad lot from the omikuji...

you will need to tie the result in the temple.

like this..


it's to chase away the bad luck.

and just to add, the lot has got english translation, chinese translation on the back of the paper.

Sensoji has gone international ~ ^^


after that, we headed to a nearby shrine. This is the kagura-den before the shrine.


a cute fat cat in the temple. hahaha. it's the shrine's cat. They named her Mii-chan. how cute~


another map.


after that, we are quite hungry and went to buy some food.


it's the AGEMANJUU -> friend manjuu


manjuu is mochi with filling inside. This is the red bean manjuu. This manjuu is slightly different from others as it's AGE-manjuu FRIED manjuu~!

it's sweet but very tasty~!


all the shops at the Nakamise street was opened then.. and we went for a souvenir shopping spree~


the word on the shop's name is YOROZOYA~~ woohoot~! sorry, we are avid gintama fans.. (>.<)


a grandma shopping for JOHNNY'S keychains! how cute! haha

and after shopping for a while at asakusa, kelly's legs start to hurt because of her boots.

Therefore, we stopped by at a nearby Mc'Donalds.

Nothing much to do but just to rest our legs...

So we embarked on a camwhore journey. hahah

super camwhores okay~*but we do have to admit that our makeup is a little CMI that day. CRIES*

we stayed there doing nothing much but taking photographs of ourselves for about 45minutes?!

wahahaha!

after that we shopped around asakusa for a while..

don't think that it's a place for elders to shop and tourists to buy souvenirs only k~~

*that's what we thought at first*

but we managed to find this shop!



it's a "everything 1050yen shop!"

and it sells really beautiful bags!

kelly bought a bag and she has been carrying it ever since. wahaha.

anyway, after shopping for so many days in tokyo and osaka.. we can conclude that this is the cheapest we found! * i'm not sure if it's a good or bad fact* haha

and so it's bye bye to beautiful asakusa~

and HELLO to UENO AMEYOKO~!