Back in Tokyo again. The last half of our trip was planned with one of our friends from undergraduate, his girlfriend and her friend, and 3 of his coworkers. Our group jumped from 4 people to 10 overnight! We started off with going to Asakusa, a Buddhist temple famous for its lanterns.
Many of the shrines have rituals that people practice before walking into the sacred areas. At some temples, visitors burn incense (osenko) in large incense burners. You can purchase a bundle, light it, let it burn for a few seconds and then extinguish the flame by waving your hand rather than by blowing it out. Place the incense into the incense burner and fan some smoke towards yourself as the smoke is believed to have healing power.
There are also purification fountains near many shrine entrances. You take one of the ladles and fill it with fresh water running out of the fountain. You rinse both hands by pouring it over the inside of your wrists. Then you are supposed to transfer some water into your cupped hand, rinse your mouth and spit the water beside the fountain, but not drink directly from the ladle or swallow the water. We (along with many others) skipped the water drinking part, but did rinse our hands.
This is a view of the 5 tiered pagoda at Asakusa from inside a zen garden. The garden is only open to visitors a few times per year and we happened to go visit one of the days it was open. We got free green tea!
Next we ventured off in search of Tokyo Tower. Its construction was inspired by the Eiffel Tower, only it is orange and white.
It attracts many tourists each year and we went to the first level to see views of Tokyo as the sun was setting. You can barely see Mount Fuji in the background of this one.
And this is a view of the tower after we left and when it was lit up at night.
That's all for this day!
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