The Senso-ji Temple and Downtown Tokyo

The entrance to the Senso-ji Temple.

Yesterday was really interesting. Kim and I traveled the farthest yet, to Asakusa – about an hour away from our school by train. Asakusa houses the Senso-ji temple, Tokyo’s oldest temple. Towering red arches stand as gateways to the temple. Each archway holds massive red and black lanterns, and wooden statues of gods protect the entrance.

Past the first gateway, dozens of souvenir shops line the path to the temple. This narrow street was more packed than Takeshita Street in Harajuku was. It was difficult to get through, but the shops had so many interesting souvenirs it was difficult not to stop in every one. I ended up buying a cloth banner than can be rolled up like a scroll. It depicts a Japanese woman, dressed in formal kimono attire, with her back to us, looking at an approaching tsunami wave that towers over her.

Once we got through the shops and under the second archway, we came to the temple’s main courtyard. Here, a tall pagoda stands to the left and in the center of the courtyard is a raised fire pit in which visitors can place bundles of wood, sort of like incense I suppose, in the fire pit. Many people stood around the fire pit and waved their hands, trying to inhale the smoke. Some were also saying prayers as the incense burned. The fire pit made the entire temple area smell like a campfire, one of my most favorite smells.

The fire pit in the temple's courtyard.

We entered the main temple and stood in front of the main shrine. It was beautiful. Everything was golden. Flowers surrounded the shrine. The ceiling was decorated with murals, one of a black dragon and the other of a woman with flowers. Visitors threw coins into slots in front of the shrine and prayed.

After much appreciation of the main shrine, Kim and I explored the surrounding area of the temple. A stone bridge lay over a gushing waterfall and a mossy pond, home to many large koi. There were other smaller temples around, each with their own smaller shrine. Every temple was red.

From the main courtyard of the temple, you can see the Tokyo Skytree, 2,080 feet tall, towering over us a couple miles away. It was an interesting contrast to see the sleek and modern Skytree looming over us while we stood on the grounds of the oldest temple in Tokyo.

The Senso-ji temple in Asakusa is, I think, the most interesting thing I have seen in Tokyo so far.

After Asakusa, Kim and I took the train to Tokyo Station because I wanted to check out Tokyo Tower. Only after leaving the station did we discover that Tokyo Tower is not near Tokyo Station, but rather a few stops beyond. By that point it was already evening so we decided to explore the area around Tokyo Station.

After a couple blocks we came across an annual jazz festival in the courtyard of the Tokyo International Forum. There was live music, cool lighting, and food trucks. Kim got excited because she saw a food truck that had burritos, and she (and I!) have been missing Mexican food. We went inside the Tokyo International Forum because the interior had incredibly high ceilings that I wanted to look at, and when we got down to the lobby we discovered a photography exhibit titled “Children in the 70 Years Since World War II.” It was humbling standing there, especially while viewing the photographs that depicted children praying on the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Mucho bar in downtown Tokyo.

Kim and I walked around a little more outside, and came across a Mexican bar called Mucho. I was enticed to go inside because they sold cocktails for 500 yen (about $5). The bar had colorful string lights hanging from the ceiling in pink, purple, blue, and green. We saw their menu and our mouths watered at the thought of chips and guacamole and fajitas. We told ourselves we’d come back when we hadn’t already spent $30 on souvenirs and other things that day.

Yesterday was an awesome day filled with many discoveries. Sometimes walking around aimlessly in a strange city is the best thing you can do.