Asakusa and Sensouji

The last place I visited on my whistle-stop tour of Tokyo last month was Sensouji in Asakusa. 

It was really pretty, although everyone's umbrellas got in the way of taking photos... 

Ah well, that just means I have an excuse to go back, right?

First up, a warning: Asakusa's Kanji is 浅草

and Sensouji's kanji is　浅草寺

It's the same kanji, but with a different reading.

Asakusa is a really cute area of Tokyo, couldn't be more different from Akihabara, which we had just visited that morning.

The street leading up to Sensou-ji was packed with shops selling souvenirs and 'Japanese' stuff. If you need to buy omiyage (souvenirs), this is your stop.

We went through the famous Kaminarimon:

Sensouji was pretty, but also pretty packed.

 Apparently, if you waft the incense smoke over your face. you will have one hundred years' good luck.

We also did our fortunes: You pay 100 yen and you get a stick with a random number on it, and the number is the drawer you choose your fortune from.

I got 'bad luck'. So I had to tie my fortune on to this metal grid, which is supposed to negate the bad luck.

There was a shrine right next to Sensouji, so of course we popped in to have a look:

looking towards Sensouji:

After Sensouji, I went back to Tokyo Station, had a very teary farewell, and hopped back on the Shinkansen.

That's all for now, but I'm going back to Tokyo for sure :)
Thanks for reading!
-Amy xoxo