Asakusa

This temple called "Sen-so Ji" located in Asakusa is perhaps the most famous tourist attraction in Tokyo. You must have seen the picture of this building before somewhere in some guidebook/itinerary/travel shows.

The path leading to the entrance is packed with tourist and stalls selling souvenirs for toruists.

Of course, there are snacks around, such as this cute pagoda-shaped muffin

This is another familiar pic of the big lantern at the entrance of the temple. It is often seen in postcards.

This is what it actually looks like from behind.... there are so many works printed behind. They are names.. but i have no idea whose they were and what relevence they had. haha

The most interesting part of the temple was perhaps this "lottery". Its called "Mi Ku Ji".

Out of the hundred plus sticks in the bottle, u shake it to randomly get a number. I got number "50". Then from the array of drawers, you open the drawer that corresponds to your number and take a sheet of paper that tells your fate.

Here is my sheet:

It is an "average" luck sheet, saying neutral things like, "will get well soon", "employment good", "safe" etc etc... You can magnify the pic above to read the details.

Out of curiosity, I looked through some other drawers. There were only 3 kinds of readings - Good, average and bad. About half of the drawers were AVERAGE readings. and a quarter each for GOOD and BAD readings.

This suay (unlucky) guy below got a BAD fortune, haha.

So he has to tie the fortune paper to this string in order to neurtralize the bad luck.

:)