So after the fish market, we made our way to Asakusa where the famous Senjo-ji temple is located. We heard on our first days here, that this was the number 1 place to buy our souvenirs and that it was a really big tourist attraction. When we exited Asakusa Station, we walked a bit and saw a tourist information site. We entered the site and grabbed some maps around the area. The volunteer told us that walking down the lane with all the vendors would take about 20mins before we reached the temple. Keep in mind, we went here on a Saturday so it was super packed! We walked down one of the lanes where all the vendors were lined up and made a turn, and found ourselves at another department store. We went into the food basement (there are tons of food basements, practically one in every dept store) where they sell teas, sweets, pastries, fried foods, sushi etc. We purchased some Japanese tea for our families and exited the mall. We found our way back to the lane and walked further where we realized we were walking in the wrong lane all this time. We found the actually line up of vendors where it was packed with food and souvenirs of all sorts. Many of the stores were selling the same keychains, lighters, lanterns, keepsakes, swords, posters etc. It was quite exciting to shop down the lane. We each purchased a few things for our friends, as well as octupus balls! I've been waiting for the day that I would eat octupus balls in Japan! We finally reached the front of the temple where people were lighting incense and drowning the smell of insense on them. People were fanning the incense towards them for luck. We then went to "check our fortunes." If it was a bad one, we would tie it on a string and let the fortune blow away. One of us got the bad fortune but believe me, I drowned myself in the incense as well. We went into the temple and despite the crowd of people it was quite beautiful and peaceful looking. The monks inside were meditating and everyone else was throwing money into the "collection bin" and praying behind the screens.
We exited the temple and we found ourselves watching a show involving a monkey. It was a really smart monkey because it understood Japanese (obviously) and it had a variety of awesome tricks. It was almost like a little person! Time was ticking and we decided to make our way to the Imperial Palace. This is also a famous touristy spot. It's a huge garden which consists of many trees and relics from the 1590 castle built by Ieyasu Tokugawa. This was his castle that had many guard houses etc. We made our way around the area which took quite a long time. This day was also one of the hottest days I've felt while being in Tokyo so I was quite exhausted after the walk. Never wear jeans in the Summer!
After the Imperial Palace we made our way back to the hotel. It was still early but from all the events earlier in the day our naps turned into a deep sleep!
Day 4 coming up - Shibuya and Shinjuku
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