Tokyo Strolls - Tokyo - page 208

208 The building dominating the square is:

0 Sensoji Temple
Sensoji is Tokyo's oldest temple. Founded
in the 7th century and therefore already
well established long before Tokugawa
settled in Edo, Sensoji Temple is dedicated
to Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of
mercy, and is therefore popularly called
the Asakusa Kannon Temple. According to
legend, the temple was founded after two
fishermen pulled a golden statue of Kan-
non from the sea. The sacred statue is still
housed in the temple, carefully preserved
inside three boxes. Even though it's never
on display, an estimated 20 million people
flock to the temple annually to pay their
respects.
Within the temple is a counter where
you can buy your fortune by putting a
100-yen coin into a wooden box and shak-
ing it until a long bamboo stick emerges
from a small hole. The stick will have a
Japanese number on it, which corresponds
to one of the numbers on a set of drawers.
Take the fortune, written in both English
and Japanese, from the drawer that has
your number. But don't expect the transla-
tion to clear things up; my fortune con-
tained such cryptic messages as “Getting a
beautiful lady at your home, you want to
try all people know about this,” and “Stop
to start a trip.” If you find that your for-
tune raises more questions than it answers
or if you simply don't like what it has to
say, you can conveniently negate it by
tying it to one of the wires provided for
this purpose just outside the main hall.
To the right (east) of the temple is the rather small:
! Nitemmon Gate
Built in 1618, this is the only structure on
temple grounds remaining from the Edo
Period; all other buildings, including Sen-
soji Temple and the pagoda, were destroyed
in a 1945 air raid.

On the northeast corner of the grounds is a small
orange shrine, the:
@ Asakusa Jinja Shrine
This shrine was built in 1649 by Iemitsu
Tokugawa, the third Tokugawa shogun, to
commemorate the two fishermen who
found the statue of Kannon, and their vil-
lage chief. Its architectural style, called
Gongen-zukuri, is the same as Toshogu
Shrine's in Nikko. West of Sensoji Temple
is a gardenlike area of lesser shrines,
memorials, flowering bushes, and a stream
of carp. ( Tip: The most picturesque pho-
tos of Sensoji Temple can be taken from
here.)
Farther west still is:
# Hanayashiki
This is a small and corny amusement park
that first opened in 1853 and still draws in
the little ones. (See “Especially for Kids,”
in chapter 7 for details.)
Most of the area west of Sensoji Temple
(to the left when facing the front of the
temple) is a small but interesting part of
Asakusa popular among Tokyo's older
working class. This is where several of
Asakusa's old-fashioned pleasure houses
remain, including bars, restaurants, strip
shows, traditional Japanese vaudeville, and
so-called “love hotels,” which rent rooms
by the hour.
If you keep walking west, past the Asakusa View
Hotel, within 10 minutes you'll reach:
$ Kappabashi-dougugai Dori
Generally referred to as Kappabashi Dori,
Tokyo's wholesale district for restaurant
items has shops selling pottery, chairs,
tableware, cookware, lacquerware, rice
cookers, noren, and everything else needed
to run a restaurant. You can even buy
those models of plastic food you've seen in
restaurant displays. Ice cream, pizza, sushi,
mugs foaming with beer—they're all here,
looking like the real thing. (Stores close
about 5pm and are closed Sun.)

8