All Things Tokyoian

On Sunday August 16th, Gina and I spent time looking out the windows of Tokyo Tower with the Murtha Family (we ran into them at our hotel!). Standing 333 meters, the Tokyo Tower is taller than the Eiffel Tower's 320 meters, making it the world's largest self-supported steel tower. It boast a weight of only 4000 tons--3000 tons lighter than the Eiffel Tower.

The following day, we visited Tokyo DisneySea. In all my life, I had never seen so many people. Japanese people at that. Boy do they love Disney!!

Cool translator for the shows!

Our final destination was to the Sensoji Temple on Tuesday August 19th. Completed in the year 645, Sensoji (Asakusa Kannon Temple) is Tokyo's oldest temple. We first entered through the Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate), the outer gate of the Sensoji. Continuing down towards the temple was as market area where we enjoyed Melon Slushis and we each purchased several souvenirs.

Before the temple, we reached the (second) Hozomon Gate.

Out of respect for those worshipping there, we did not take pictures of the actual shrine and alter, but we did get take pictures of the gardens, spent time cleansing ourselves in a fountain, watched people burn incense and received an omikuji (fortune). You are supposed to tie your paper fortune up to wooden poles in front of the temple so that your fortune will come true.

Gina's fortune was prosperous. Mine was not so great.

It read: "Bad Fortune Lack[sic]. Although you work hard, your family business will not yet be propserous. Obstacles and damages are coming over continuously. Whole situation will be really dangerous. Just like black clouds cover moonlight, many accidents will happen. Also it looks like a beautiful lady burning purfume in her bedroom, suffering from anxiety. Your wishes will not be realized. A sick person will not recover. The lost article will not be found. The person you are waiting for will not come. Building a new house and removal should be stopped. Marriage, making a trip, employement are all bad. Everything will come out to be bad, so you should be patient."

Yikes! Good thing I kept it and did not tie it up--I don't want any of that to come true!