Visit to Asukasa and Odaiba

Off on another tour.  This time to an area of Tokyo called Asakusa to visit the Senso-Ji Temple.  Later we went to an area that is an artificial island in Tokyo bay where they have a lot of different types of entertainment. 

Here's the view down the street from where the bus dropped us off.  It's only one of several gates into the Senso-Ji complex.

Once inside and to the right was small area.  To one side is this building which if you look at the next picture would be sitting off on my right.  In the building above there were different groups of musicians playing traditional Japanese instruments.  It was pretty cool.  I took a short video just to capture some of the music.  I really would have liked to left the camera there to record all of it.

Straight ahead in the bottom pic is the Senso-Ji Shrine

One of the many statues around the place.

Some of the buildings in the temple area have a very old origin date.  Like the Five-storied pagoda in the background.  The original pagoda was built around 942.  It's since been rebuilt several times.  The one you see here was built in 1973 after having been destroyed in WWII.













Here is one of the, if not the main hall in the complex. 

Main Hall up close

                         

Here is another one of the gates into the complex called the Hozo-mon Gate.  It leads out to a pedestrian street lined with shops that you see in the next picture. 

Another statue 

Three guesses as to what this is.  Nope.
and Nope and No you're still wrong.

I thought this was odd.  I noticed it after I came out of the restroom.  It's a smoking area.  If you look at the girl standing on the left.  You'll notice to her right side is a grill area.  That's where they're flicking their ashes.  There are three of those grills there. 

There was a nice little wooded are inside the temple complex.  That's where

I shot the pic above and below.

When we left the Senso-Ji Temple we walked down the street a couple blocks and there was a dock for a "water" bus.  The one we rode on looked just like this one.  It took us down the Sumida River to a nice park. 

On the way out of the park we came across this newly wed couple.  Our tour guide asked if our group could take pictures.  As you can see they're in traditional Japanese clothes. 

Here's the last picture before leaving the park.  This tree is claimed to be 300 years old.

After the park we boarded the bus again for Odaiba.  Like I said earlier it is mostly an entertainment zone.  There's a ginormous ferris wheel attached in some way to this very large mall called Venus Fort.  If any of you have been to Caesers Palace in Las Vegas, it was very much like that on the inside.  Very grand.

This picture on the right and the one below are in the central courtyard at the mall.  It's an  open air area with things for the kids.  They both looked like lost of fun.  The one below if you can't tell are very large bubbles that the children get sealed in and get to roll around on the water.

Now I had to take a picture of this.  I've seen only a couple since being here.  If you enlarge the picture you can see what it is.  Kind of looks like a urinal.  No.  It's a hand dryer in the bathroom.  Luckily no one was in there when I snapped this.  It was made for very little hands.  I had about a quarter inch on either side of my hands while they were in there.  So you know it set of my germaphobe vibe.