Posted by Jess
12 February 2011

After dropping Ella off at school today, Jason, Abby and I headed to Asakusa Shrine and Senso-ji Temple.  Asakusa is an area of Tokyo about a 35 minute train ride from our house.  It's a pretty big attraction here that we hadn't visited yet so even though the weather was not all that great today (as you'll see in the pictures!) we made the trip anyway.

Senso-ji temple is the oldest and most popular temple of Tokyo, dating back to 628.  History says that two brothers were fishing in the area and caught a statue of Kannon.  They put the statue back in the river but it kept finding its way to them, so they built a temple to honor her.  The statue is still there but not viewable to the public. 

The area is pretty commercial with a large shopping street leading up to the shrine.  There are small shops selling souvenirs, toys, purses, packaged cakes and cookies - classic tourist trap items!  With the wet snow coming down, we didn't stay very long. 

"Thunder" Gate

shopping street

some lovely weather we're having, isn't it?

ceiling mural

ceiling mural

 On our way back to the train station, we found a little line of people waiting to buy something from a food stand.  After looking in, we found that it was a stand selling fish-shaped waffles with fillings.  Filling choices were strawberry cream cheese, chocolate, red bean paste and chestnut, sweet potato and custard with a few others.   We decided to give one a try and bought the custard one.




After letting Abby try a bite, we realized we weren't getting it back...










So Jay went back and bought one more.  This time Strawberry Cream Cheese.  :)



All said, we were there about an hour I think.  There were a few other things to look at in the area but we were cold and wet so we headed inside to warm up!

Kanpai!
Jess