Asakusa!!!

Asakusa: pronounced "a-SAH-koo-sah" not "assa-koosa"

Today's adventure was probably my favorite so far!!! It was our day off and although it was meant to rain, 4 of us decided to go explore! At first we couldn't decide where to go. We wanted to see the Sky Tree, but it was really foggy and we wouldn't be able to see anything if we went up the tower. Instead we thought; "maybe we could go to Odaiba and play in the massive arcade, or go to Ginza and walk around, or go to Sinjuku and explore there..." In the end we finally decided to travel to our original destination, Asakusa, because we knew there would be temples and I was dying to finally see some beautiful architecture!

Grant, Meliah, Bridie, and I

So we took a few trains for about 45 minutes total and finally stepped out in Asakusa. We had to walk through a bunch of little shops filled with fans, kimono, samurai swords, chopsticks, prayer beads, masks, etc. to reach the temples. I wanted to buy EVERYTHING! I will absolutely be returning to Asakusa to birthday and Christmas shop for friends and family!

Kimono shop!

The temples were outrageously stunning! I had been so anxious to see the stereotypical Japanese shrines and there they were right before my eyes! Incredible!

I mean...just look at it!!!

A little out of focus, but still a nice group shot!

There were little fortune stands all around the temples. You put 100yen (about $1) in the slot, shake the tin, get a stick with a number, open the box with the matching number, read your fortune, then tie it to a nearby rack.

Those are the boxes with the fortunes. That is the
silver tin you shake with the sticks.

This was my fortune. It is a bad fortune :( The English translation is pretty comical though.

Then I tied it to the rack.

Three out of the four of us all got bad fortunes. What a waste of a dollar.

You have to cleanse your hands with this water before
entering the temple.

It's a horrible picture, but this is what it looked like inside the temple.

There was a little room you could see into where there was some sort of prayer ritual or Buddhist service going on.

Out to the left of the temple was a garden with some ancestral shrines.

The garden!

Just beautiful!!!!

Little Buddha

It was too perfect with the man there not to take a photo!

Love this view.

After the temple, we walked along a street with a few food vendors. There were kebabs with octopus and squid, sweet pastries, and omelettes!!

Kebabs! I actually tried a bite of the octopus one! (Don't worry, it was fried and dipped in sauce!)

This is called Takoyaki! It's a doughy ball filled with octopus and topped
with some flaky stuff and some sort of sauce!

There were some cool engraved stones in the park!

I saw my first cherry blossom!!!! (right now I'm trying
cherry blossom ice cream for the first time! Oishi!)

I also saw my first kimono-dressed couple!!! Cho kawaii!!! (so cute)

Even though the temples and the snacks were great, my favorite part of the day was spending about an hour in the nearby kiddie amusement park! The park was called: "Hanayashiki"- the old park with a smile!

We were SO excited.

We rode in a flying gingerbread house!!!!!

We had a beautiful view of the Sky Tree!

We had WAY too much fun!!!!

This was a haunted house ride that I screamed through the
entire ride even though my eyes were closed and nothing was actually that scary...

Then we decided it was time to go home, which we were thrilled to say
because our home was only 45 minutes away :)

Until next time, sayounara!!!