Today 2

Today is Halloween and I had the day off from school. It is also the day of the pre-festival for the Sophia Festival (cultural fest.). So at 4:30 me and a group of friends went to the pre-festival. There was a fashion show, dance contest, and a pop band acting like a rock band called Guest live. One had blue hair, another had kabuki paint mask, and the only time they touched their instruments to pose. After the festival we went and got tomato soup ramen. I had the egg ramen. Finally, (and definitely the best) an old man sitting on the front porch of my dormitory smoking said I had an anime voice. Cool right!?
No pictures this time it wasn't allowed.
Oh, I found an English pub as well.

Intermission

Now this entry is just random things I noticed about Japan and the Japanese.

1. Not every bathroom has soap, paper towels, or hand dryer. Of course, the bathroom in my dorm and school has those things, even the new fancy hand dryers that actual work, but public places do not.

2. A lot of people ride bikes and many of those bikes have two child seats on them. I also so a teenage girl ride a bicycle with a baby in the basket.

3. I personally haven't notice many Japanese staring at me, commenting on how tall I am, and none of the restaurant's waitresses clapping their hands because I can use chopsticks. Some do avoid eye contact though.

4. I don't think I am as tall, compared to the Japanese, as I originally thought.

5. They are obsessed with fried food, they fry any thing, and are especially fond of fried chicken. I think they eat as much fried chicken as they do fish.

6. Seven-a-eleven in Japan is a not a real seven-a-eleven, I mean it is a connivence store, but it's name is cover to lure in unsuspecting foreigners.

7. Plenty of girls where short skirts and short shorts. In fact, you can tell which grade a girl is in based on her skirt. The shorter it is the older the girl. No joke.

8. The Japanese don't really have the same kitchen like we do in the states. I mean they don't have a actual oven and some don't even have dishwashers.
So here is a picture of my cook-top in my dorm in the kitchen.

9. In Japan there are two subway systems: 1) JR and 2) Metro.

The JR is not really a subway, most of the lines are above ground while the Metro has lines that are so far done it reminds me of the subway in London. 

    

Tokyo: Asakusa- Asakusa Shrine

This shrine is considered separate from the temple however, the shrine is on the temple grounds. The shrine is dedicated to the fisherman brothers who were commanded by the gods to pull the Kannon statue from the river. The shrine was built by the 3rd Tokugawa shogun: Iemitsu.
There is a huge festival held annually in May.

The entrance of the shrine, you can see from here that is it is small in size.

Wired green(bronze) thing.
No idea what it is but it looks important.

One of the guard dogs. This one is actually cute.

The inside of the shrine, sorry the picture is bad I took it afar.

Something I saw in the metro underground which I thought was cool.

Tokyo: Asakusa Around Sensouji Temple and the Festival

  Here are some pictures of around the grounds of Sensouji Temple. Kinda random, I know. There were several small "halls" but the information about them was in Japan.

This hall, I actually know a little about this one. The picture below is of the Yogodo Hall which was built in 1994 in order to commemorate the birth day of the monk who establishing the temple succeses. This temple has the Bodhisattva Kannon and twelve other protective Buddhas. Each of the twelve Buddhas symbolize a year of the original Chinese zodiac cycle. My protective Buddha is Dainichi.

Here are some more pictures.

I stumbled upon an area of the temple that worked as a memorial site.

There are many tablets that have people's names on it I don't think anyone is actual buried here.

This one of Japan's first social worker.
Helped people in need her entire life,
during the Meiji Era.

This is a grave. I don't remember who.

 The final picture on the right s of a famous Kabuki actor dressed as his most popular role.

Anyway, while I was there the Temple held its Dancing Golden Dragon Festival. The festival is held twice a year, as the legend goes, on some 18 day of some month 1000 pine trees sprouted up as a golden dragon descended from the sky flying to the forest. I have no idea why and the dragon was never seen again. Sounds sorta like a ghost story, you know. Said in a scary voice, "Now on the 18th of every month in the dead of night a shimmering golden light in the shape of dragon can be seen. But anyone who sees the light disappears into the forest never to be heard of again."
I got videos and picts. this time.
But before the video of the small festival are some pictures of the route the dragon float took.

 
Now for the videos: (Two of them are the same but I couldn't decided which one was better.)

Next is a Shrine, and the final episode of Asakusa.

Tokyo: Asakusa- Sensouji Temple Main Hall

The Sensouji Temple makes its claim to fame as the oldest temple in Tokyo and said to have a golden Kannon statue. However, the public cannot see it because the monk Shokai had a mysterious dream that informed to hide the statue from human view. Although the monk Ennin created an identical statue and called the spirit of the original into the new one. Makes you wonder what is the truth behind that story. . . I smell a cover up. Sensouji and Asakusa are the same characters but the first is the Chinese pronunciation and the second is Japanese.
Here are picture of the main gate called Kaminarimon Gate:

This is a sculpture under the big lantern in the middle of the gate.

There are four statues inside four rooms that make up the pillars of the main gate. Two in the front and two in the back. You can sort of see them in the first image on the left and right of the big lantern.

First one is Raijin, the god of thunder. The second one is Fuujin, the god of wind. I don't know who are the two statues on the back of the gate.



Now, the legend behind the statue is that in 628 a couple of brother fisherman were commanded by god to cast their net into the river. When they pulled the net out inside was the golden statue of Kannon. After the fisherman told their story to the villagers the headman Haji Nakatomo decided to become a buddhist monk and transforming his home into a temple to hold the statue. The one who built the actual main hall specifically for the worship of the Bodhisattva Kannon was Shokai. Shokai is thus credited with the foundation Sensouji.
Now you go through the main gate and enter the Nakamise-dori which is a long shopping street sure to make any shopping lover to adore this temple.

This shopping center has a vary amount of stuff from masks to cute phone straps to really cool traditional Edo made products.

So I walk done the street, which is like three or four blocks long, taking in the sights.

Here are the pics.

I have no idea who his.

Again, no idea.

The Seven Lucky Gods

After the stopping street the path leading the the main temple hall had a long row of food stands, I'll explain why a little further down. For lunch I had Yakisoba and Takoyaki. 

I also may have had some soft serve.

My excuse, soft serve here is like ice cream in America there are quite a number of flavors. From the usual green tea or strawberry to the Hokkaido and black sesame flavor.

I had chocolate. It was good, best I ice cream I have had in a month. It tasted like dark chocolate. Definitely better than what I get at home. 

After the shopping is the main temple.

Again, the pics.:

Deity on the left. 

This is under the two golden lanterns in that gate. 

Deity on the right.

 Going through this gate you enter the main plaza which has multiple fortune papers stations and on both sides of the plaza as well. The fortune papers are indeed in english.

  I also got a fortune it wasn't big luck but it was normal good luck. Any good luck is better than bad luck. You know.

This is where you cleanse your self before entering the temple. It is really cool with multiple dragon heads around the basin.

Weird green thing that sort of looks like a collection of buckets.

 

The next couple of pictures are of the main hall, finally. The paintings of the dragon with the two angels on the sides is a ceiling paining inside the shrine. There was no sigh that said not to take picture so I did. The final image in the worship temple shrine.

In the area of the main plaza is the Five-Story Pagoda.

You cannot go inside or at least not on the day I went. It dose remind me of the Pagoda from Pokemon Soul Silver. 

The reason for the food stands was because there was a festival going on the day I went. The Dancing Golden Dragon festival, to be precise. However, that is for next time.