Senso-Ji is located at Asakusa, Tokyo in Japan. It is one of the most popular tourist attraction in Tokyo if not the most popular. It attracts millions of customers everyday to visit this place. Getting to Senso-Ji is very easy. It is right outside of Asakusa train station. Simply follow the sign on the wall and you will get to Senso-Ji.
We got to Senso-Ji by 8AM in the morning and there were already huge crowd of people there. This shows how crazy this place gets. Before reaching the temple, there are many small shops along the walk way selling souvenirs and snacks. At 8AM in the morning, most shops have not opened yet and the shops only open at 9AM. Thus we decided to visit the temple first.
Senso-Ji is known with the template gate that says "thunder gate" on the lantern. Good luck taking a photo with it because there were just so many people trying to take a picture with it. It was just insane. We gave up taking a photo with it and walked right towards the main temple. The main temple is quite large and it actually felt cool in the main temple. Keep in mind that there is a sign that says no photos allowed in the main temple. We then visited the surrounding areas of Senso-Ji. There were Buddha statues and smaller temples on the side. We also saw man made waterfalls in the garden. We could also see Tokyo Sky Tree from here.
The Omamori sold here does not look that good compared to Meiji Jingu. So we do not recommend getting the ones here. Meiji Jingu has better ones with more variety.
After visiting Senso-Ji, we then went shop around in the area within Asakusa, There are many shopping streets in the surrounding area and most of them are covered with plastic ceiling. There are many tax free shops targeted for tourists such as make ups, drugs, and snacks.
In general, we are not quite sure why Senso-Ji is a must visit place. The temple itself is not very big. We basically walked in and walked out. The shopping area around it is nice, but there are many other similar areas within Tokyo. So we recommend not to spend too much time here since there isn't much things to do here.
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