Sensoji in Asakusa is Tokyo's largest temple, and pretty much obligatory for all visitors. It is huge and crammed with worshippers, tourists and trinkets. Last time I was there, I picked 'The Best Fortune' from a canister full of omikuji or fortune sticks inside the temple. Later, I was slightly disappointed to learn this wasn't actually the preferred fortune, as it implies that from that point things can only go downhill. This time I picked 'The Good Fortune', which contained a series of reassuring-sounding predictions such as 'The patient will get well. Marriage, employment and starting a trip are all right'. So, that's good to know. If you get a bad fortune, there's a rack full of other unwanted fortunes you can tie it to. By leaving it at the temple it apparently no longer applies to you, and the bad luck is dissipated by the resident deity.
Unless you are visiting shrines and temples with someone who knows what's going on, none of this is really obvious. For anyone going to Japan for the first time I would recommend reading a shrine guide before you go.
As a very old neighbourhood, Asakusa is filled with countless smaller shrines and historic places. Down a side street in a small walled courtyard we found Chingodo Shrine, dedicated to one of Japan's cutest native animals, the tanuki. Tanuki look a bit like a glossy, brown badger and play a surprisingly large role in Japanese folklore. We learnt that the shrine was built "to stop the escapades of tanukis which had started to bewitch the people of Asakusa". And that according to legend, "these creatures regretted all the tricks they had played on people and twelve of them trained to become gankake-tanuki, or wish-granting raccoon dogs"!
Dominating the shrine was a statue of Jizo, guardian of unborn children. We saw Jizo-and-baby statues throughout Japan. Each one had a red knitted bib or small pot of water at its feet. According to Japanese mythology, when children die before their parents their souls are prevented from entering the afterlife. Instead, they are sentenced to pile stones eternally. Jizo protects them from this fate by hiding them in his robes. The gifts are put there by grieving parents in the hope that Jizo will look after their child's soul.
Down the road, we found lunch. Mos Burger is a Japanese hamburger chain with a slightly unappealing name. Although most of their products look like fairly standard western burgers, there is also a line of 'rice burgers' with fried rice patties instead of buns. Mine featured a tempura disc of vegetables and seafood, and was delicious!
Later in the day we relocated to a non-capsular hotel. Our new place was another ryokan in the suburbs near Ueno. The walk from the train station took us through a series of narrow, old-fashioned streets full of businessmen cycling home and tidy rows of pot plants lined up against the walls of houses. We looked out for friendly stump-tailed cats in the local graveyard and stocked up on essentials at a 100 yen shop. My purchase of the day was a smiley dish sponge.
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