It was love at first sight. As and when we are out of subway we fell in love. On to our right stood the towering Tokyo skytree. And were welcomed to Tokyo just like that.
Since we arrived way before check-in time we had time at our disposal to explore the city a little bit. Leaving luggage at the hotel reception we moved towards the Asakusa temple. While having a drag just opposite the temple complex we we're approached by a gentleman with kind face asking about our nationality. He seemed genuinely happy when we said we are Indians. Well! Japan and India always had a good relationship. He invited us to be a part of Japanese traditional dance. We we're hesitant in the beginning as it maybe one of the tourist hacks. Well! That story is for another post.
The crowd is all over the place, spilling in-and-out all the time.
Legend: The statue of kannon (Bhuddhist goddess of mercy ) was found in Sumedha river by two fishermen brothers, Hinokuma Hamanari and Hinokuma Takenari. Without knowing the importance of the statue they immersed the statue in river. Surprisingly it emerged multiple times. Not knowing what to do the brothers went to the village chieftain with the statue. Noticing the divinity of the statue the village chief decided to build a temple in Asakusa. Senso means Asakusa and Ji means temple, hence the name Sensoji. This is the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo, founded in 645 AD. It was bombed and destroyed during world war 2 and was rebuilt later. It is a symbol of peace and rebirth to Japanese people. Around 30 million pilgrims and travelers visit this temple annually from all around the world. And we are humbled to say we are one among those millions.
Until visiting Japan we were under the impression that Japanese practice only Buddhism. How wrong we were! Another religion is Shinto. We are mentioning it here because adjacent to the Sensoji there is a five-story Pagoda or Shinto shrine, known as Asakusa shrine. In the beginning we were so confused as we we're searching for Asakusa temple and here we are in Sensoji. Even Google map shows it as Sensoji as well as Asakusa. This Shinto shrine is dedicated to two fishermen brothers and village chieftain who funded the project to establish goddess Kannon. We don't know much about Shintoism other than that they worship every object in the world, be it fire, water, air, earth and so on. We're actually told about this the next day by our guide Marie while teaching us tidbits about Japan and its culture on the way to Mount Fuji. She who told us to look for torri gate to recognize Shinto temple from Buddhist.
We would say Asakusa is the busiest area in Tokyo, even crowed than the famed Shibuya Crossing. And we get to see a newly wed couple getting into the horse carriage.
