Sho's note
Kaminarimon
The lantern is 3.9 metres tall and weighs about 700 kg. Konosuke Matsushita paid for the gate in 1960, as thanks for getting over his joint pain.
From your guide
What I point out on the way
I spent nine years in Brisbane, from junior high to the end of university, and I guide in English or Japanese. I check our food stops with each shop before the day.
Sho's note
Hozomon
Look up at the straw sandals: 4.5 metres tall and 500 kg, given by Murayama in Yamagata. They're meant to scare off evil by hinting at the size of the gate's guardians.
Sho's note
Kappabashi
One story says kappa from the Sumida River helped a man named Kihachi dig a canal here. Today it's a street of shops selling tools for cooking and food.
The area around Senso-ji is flat and easy on foot. The free 8th-floor terrace of the tourist centre opposite Kaminarimon shows the whole route at once. You can see Nakamise running up to Hozomon, the main hall, and the Skytree across the river.
Nakamise dates to around 1685. Its paving stones were given in 1817 by a local association, because the approach to the temple used to turn to mud.