Because Ming is all about culture and all that, while we were in Tokyo he got us to visit another shrine! The Asakusa Shrine. This one is much bigger than the Meiji Shrine we visited and because it had a lot more people, we didn’t have to worry so much about keeping our voices down. Back at the Meiji Shrine everyone was so quiet that whenever we talked I felt as if the whole Shrine heard us and it’s not like we were shouting or anything.
The entrance to the Shrine is represented by this big gate with a lantern in the middle. Right after the gate is a long row of shops where tourists can buy all sorts of different souvenirs. When it comes to like Japanese-sy kind of souvenirs, Ming says that nothing beats this marketplace. They sell everything from Kimonos to Japanese hand-painted fans to even food stuff like biscuits and seaweed
We saw this shop that sold cold green-tea and we all bought a cup each. All we were expecting was a good cold drink because it was so hot but we were all pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted. It had so much flavour it tasted like green-tea X 1,000!!!
Bought some souvenirs for the Nuffies too. Ended up buying these little things that are more expensive than it looks. Heck they were like RM12 or something each but they’re not just any little keychain thingies. They were special!
They had a hole in each of them where you could look into it and see some kind of image inside. Sort of like a kaleidoscope! Like Mr. Sumo here.
Also saw this old Japanese man making some fu chuk stuff. He did it so smoothly like he had been doing it for many many years.
After we got through the shopping we finally reached the Shrine.
Before you get into the shrine you’re supposed to do two things though. First there is this little pavilion with burning incense where you’re supposed to use your hand and slowly fan some of the smoke to yourself (just like how people in the picture are doing it). It’s supposed to ward off evil spirits.
After that you go to this other corner where you’re supposed to use the water there to wash your hands before you go into the Shrine. Everyone had to do it. Even this cute little girl here that was dressed in a Kimono.
Once inside the shrine you can do something that really reminds me of all the Hong Kong TV dramas I’ve seen while growing up. You know in those TV shows, you would have one of the characters go to the temple and then shake this cylinder thing until a stick comes out that reads your fortune? Well in Japan we have that too.
This is Pinky finding her fortune.
She shook this metal cylinder thing until that stick came out. The stick then had a number on it that told her which drawer to open to find her fortune. I know some people who’re afraid to do things like that and would rather just not know their future for fear that it might be bad but Pinky certainly wasn’t one of them. Her fortune turned out to be good though.
We decided to head back after we had finished seeing everything we could in the Shrine but we had a nice little surprise at the end. After we exited the Shrine we saw a couple of Japanese girls fully dressed in Kimonos. The girls decided that they thad to take a picture with them. I thought they were really pretty.
Something about Kimonos just make girls look even prettier to me!
So that was Asakusa Shrine 🙂
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space