Sanja Matsuri

If any of you followed my moms blog, you will have seen that we went to a large temple in the middle of Tokyo called Asakusa.  One interesting thing about Asakusa is that the area caters to both Buddhist and Shinto beliefs.  There is a Buddhist temple called Senso-ji and a Shinto Temple called Asakusa (same as the neighborhood name). When we went with my family, it was raining and nothing special was going on, but there were still a lot of people there. 

Well, Sanja Matsuri is a festival celebrating the foundation of the Buddhist Temple, Senso-ji. It is a three-day celebration that occurs on the third full weekend of May. The sheer amount of people that show up to festivals is overwhelming and sometimes a deterrent, but Chris and I were up for battling the crowds.  The main thing that we wanted to see is full body tattoos. Every year, the Yakuza, Japanese Mafia, show face (and body) at the festival for a popular spectacle: showing off their full-body tattoos.

Unfortunately, due to a military exercise, we did not make it down until late Saturday.  Not much was going on when we finally got downtown, so we ended up doing some shopping in Shibuya and ate dinner in Ebisu before heading back to the New Sanno for the night.

On Sunday Morning, we parked about 5 train stations away and took the trains to Asakusa. We knew exactly where to go because we were in a literal sea of people. As soon as the train doors opened, we all flooded out and up the stairs to the street.

Side Note: Mom, if you remember in the Asakusa station there was a shrine glassed in and we told you they take it out and parade it around one day a year… This was that day.

A mikoshi is a portable shrine. This festival had a supposed three portable shrines roaming the city, although Chris and I thought we saw more. People march down the street in a makeshift parade with these portable shrines. Be careful to be observant and on your toes though because they stop for NO ONE! In fact, we were watching a larger shrine make its way to the ‘Thunder Gate’; which protects the entrance to the temples when all the marchers turned the shrine 180 degrees and knocked over a bunch of people.  We were at the end of those people and Chris managed to hold up about three Japanese people and myself from falling. Thanks Chris!

 Pardon the finger in the camera... it was a 'hold up the camera and hope to get a good shot' moment.

Once inside the temple gates, our senses were overwhelmed with all the shops and food vendors and lines of people everywhere. In addition to the normal amount of trinket shops that they have, more were set up down the road leading to the temple as well as an additional road to the left of the temple. There were also probably over 100 food vendors on the grounds. People were in long lines at almost all the vendors as well as to get to shrines.

A new trend I noticed was colored-chocolate covered bananas and marshmallows with sprinkles of course. Another was fruit encased in a sweet thick syrup that was kept on ice until purchased, then set in a mini-waffle cone bowl. We saw some classics like fried chicken, fish cakes, and takoyaki (fried octopus balls).

As with festivals in America, if you put something on a stick, people will buy it, right? : )

Following that principle, we saw crab chunks on a stick, baked potatoes on a stick, giant sausages on a stick, and my personal favorite, okinomiyaki on a stick. It was like a giant Japanese burrito with two chopsticks (hashi) holding it all on. Simply impressive.

Other Notes: We found buffalo chicken flavored Doritos, Chris says they were okay. We also saw these crazy-colorful apartments that we thought we would share. Along with a book vending machine. Mom, you wanted me to take a picture of those trees along the sides of the road that were cut back to stubs... and when we got home, my plant had sprouted this. It reminds me of mini-Lady Slippers and makes me smile.

Final Note: This is irrelevant to this post, but sometimes I backdate the posts so when I post multiple things in one day, things will make more sense if I post it on the day it happened. I say that because I am actually writing this on 25 May, 2015 and we just had a big earthquake. Usually, we will feel some only when we are sitting. Usually around 4.2’s, 100+ kilometers away from us. This particular earthquake was a 5.6 and was right under us (0 kilometers away). One of the biggest quakes I have felt while living in Japan. Chris says ‘ he’s felt bigger’. Oh men...