On the weekend before school starts

Hi all, I promised to post on my trip to Kaminarimon, so here it is. :)

Went to Asakusa and Ueno with Xia Yi on Sat, 30th of Sept... HAd lots of Fun.

Here is the pic of Kaminarimon... believe it or not, the lantern on the gate is only two thirds down. When it's fully down, you can see and extra character - the chinese character 'SHEN'- for deity/ god.

Wahaha, and just because I'm so full of myself, I'm posting up a pic with ME in it wahaha.

A Picture of the main street leading up to sensoji, the biggest shrine in the general area. There are lots of small shops lining the street... Pretty lively atmosphere. DO take note of the decorations and the prints on the erected roof.

Here's a close up of the decorations.

Wahaha. I hapily forgot to take a pictur of the MAIN shrine building... well done me. But here's what the inside of the temple/ shrine compund looks like:

There are stations where you pay 100 yen to shake a box full of sticks in the hope that one will fall out through the little hole in the edge of the box. the stick has a number carved on it. On the 'wall' infront of the person, there are about 200+ small drawers with a corresponding number on them. You open the drawer with the same number as your stick, and take one of the pieces of paper that are in the box. It apparently tells you your fortune forcast for the year. What you do next is tie it onto strings ( provided ) or plants in the area. If your fortune is good, tying will ensure that it's good. If it's bad, tie and PRAY that it'll change. It's called 'MIKUJI'.

There's also this area where people burn blessed incense that they can buy from the shrine staff. the people in the pic were waving the incense onto themselves. It's supposed to be blessings.

A little further down is a place where people can wash their hands and mouths before going into the main praying area. It's apparently the etiquette that you do this before going into ask for blessings. A sort of purification process.

Here is the view of the grounds outside the main building from above.

This is a shot of the main praying area. In front of the people in the pic is a box where they can toss coin offerings in. ON either side are Big glass cases where you can put your candles. Said candles are those with blessings. The different blessings are written on the candles. One can buy candles from the shrine staff.

Wow. There're some more MIKUJI stations inside the prayer area. Here i've managed to catch some Japanese checking out their fortunes.

After looking at the main prayer area. Xia Yi and I decided to check out some of the smaller shrines in the area. And it was a good thing we did! we managed to catch sight of a Japanese wedding! Boy am I glad my traditional costume (for weddings) isn't as... heavy looking as the bride's.

Here's a close up of the happy couple descending the shrine stairs.

mm, here's a pic of the bride's family members trying to catch the bus driver's attention.

Haha. They managed to do it... pretty funny actually :P

I heard some drum music coming from behind me so i left the wedding alone and went to have a look... turns out that there's a street performance going on. A man and his monkey. V. CUTE! and just for clarification [yes. i AM talking about BOTH the man and monkey]

Here is the monkey acting aghast. So adorable [just monkey]

Here I am, taking a break from walking too much. (I know, I know... I very lousy, CMI laaa~)

We went to ueno for lunch.... behold! my samon oyako don!!! YEAH I'M LOVIN' IT! [not making any money from this blog, so pls dun sue me macdonald's! i'm but a poor student]

Walked along the market street in ueno, and bought IKURA~! ^-^ but didn't take pics. [IKURA is, by the way, the little balls you see on my lunch... that's salmon roe] We went to ueno park to walk for a bit actually, and too some pictures there. It's actually a LOT bigger than i first thought it was there are a few shrines in the park itself so haha some mroe photo taking opportunities:

Here's a pic of me somewhere in the park... it was sooo big and by the time we got to the park we were seriously too tired to remember the names of the places we went to.

Random scenery shot.

Pic of Xia Yi and I against a backdrop of lotuses... the entrie area is covered with lotuses.

A kyomizu temple we came across in the park.

Hee hee, ANOTHER pic of me taking a break and drinking COCONUT juice! haha i was so shocked that Xia Yi had NEVER drunk coconut juice... I was like NEVAAAR!!! YOU SHALL DRINK IT TODAY!!!! so yeaaah. I ended up buying a coconut for myself too. haha She liked it so much she smuggled the coconut husk back to the dorm... -_- Aaah well.

Came across an INARI shrine... and haha as can be expected... i sorta insisted that we visit it. hee hee... like foxes maaah stone ones oso caaan. :D The characteristic os Inari shrines: the Tori gates.

Another characteristic: the Stone foxes.

aiz well, ya. This post is super long... will just upload a few more pics, so it's ending soon! yay!

That's about all for the SAT section actually. On SUN, I decided to go to chruch. It was a very interesting sermon (or at least what I COULD understand about it was interesting.) The service is very traditional. Reminds me of my one of my old chruches back in Singapore. This chruch building is rather old and quaint.. wooden pews and PIPE ORGAN! Hymns were sung... Very nice. :) [I'll always prefer the quiet services to the lively ones... NOT saying that i dun like the lively ones though.] The people at this chruch are nice :) pretty welcoming... and there is this HOT HOT HOT worship leader who lead the service he's a student at waseda, from Norway. WOAH. Great sense of humour, fashion and looks absolutely smouldering in jeans. CUTE too whoo~ [HOT WORSHIP LEADER FOOO~!] Unfortunately dun have his pics. aah wasted. (Sry Jse haha. You know I love you anyway ^-^ [wow public declaration wahaha.])

Here are two shots of the chruch building, one in the day, and one taken at night.

Front profile of Chruch in the day.

Same profile at night. Pretty no?

ok PHEW finished. will try to get photos of the hall of the chruch for you.... and hopefully can gat a pic of that worship leader... Magne Torring, his name.