A morning walk around the Senso-ji temple 👹🍣🎎 My Japan

As I've mentioned before, I'm not an early bird, so I guess from time to time I miss quite a bit of what's already happening in the wee hours of the morning. But since I'm usually active until late evening and until late at night, I still get enough out of the day to do and experience something.

However, when traveling it is sometimes even useful to get up a little earlier and to get out and going. Many popular places are simply too crowded during the day to really enjoy them and to take a closer look around at your own pace. That's why it's a good idea to take a first spin around some places before the crowds arrive and experience a completely different atmosphere than in the middle of the day.

During our last trip to Tokyo, we took this advice to heart and left the house one morning right after waking and went for a walk through the historic Asakusa district. In particular, we were looking at the famous Senso-ji temple, a very popular place with crows of visitors pushing their way through every day from the late morning onwards.

I have been quite familiar with the temple for a long time, and I have visited here before at different times of the day and also at different times of the year to check out what is going on there. Sometimes it is also important to dive deep into the crowds around you and become part of the intense atmosphere that surrounds us there.

But on this morning everything seemed rather quiet and empty and we were able to check out the place without having the crowds around us and to let our thoughts run free for a moment.

Of course, some visitors were already out there, and around us people were already preparing and tuning in for the coming hours. But we took our time for a nice leisure walk and discovered this place from a more relaxed point of view.

The history of Senso-ji Temple goes back a long way to the 7th century. Throughout the ages, the temple has been repeatedly destroyed by fire and war, and was last rebuilt in its current form in 1958.

The temple complex includes several imposing gates and also a five-story pagoda, and there are many traditional stores and also restaurants which have settled around the temple, catering to the well-being of the many domestic and foreign visitors.

As usual in Japanese temples, the color red was dominant, which is often used to ward off dangers and mischief. Since the temple has been recently renovated, the colors were now shining even more vividly than before.

On the stairs to the main building it was still pretty empty and we could take our time to look at the scenery around us and enjoy the things we saw.

But the first visitors and pilgrims were already approaching, who maybe had the same idea as we had. Without crowds it is probably much better to pray and reflect.

And without all the other people in front of you, we also managed to take a look directly into the sanctuary. Normally, your view is blocked and it will be almost impossible to stop here for more than a second.

But this time I was able to just stand there and to admire the interior architecture and the paintings on the ceiling. Because it was still quiet in there, this was a pleasant break on our morning walk.

But when we were looking outside we noticed that things were starting to change around us. But even though we were not alone here, it was by no means a comparison to the pictures from the day before. Still everything was very peaceful and quiet.

Around the pagoda too, there were only a few people walking around, but it was clear that only a short time later we would see a big crowd coming from everywhere and flowing in all directions.

From other perspectives, the temple seemed almost sleepy. From here you easily managed to forget and fade out the people around you and reflect a little on the place and time.

A little off to the side, you were almost alone and had the moment just for yourself. As usual, I stopped way too often to take photos. Somehow I just can never resist the temptation.

In some places, it was easy to forget that you were still in the middle of the city after all. This little park-like area quickly made me slow down again and stop rushing around.

And then there was the cherry blossom, which showed up in a few places and got into position. Fortunately, we were still able to experience some of this wonderful spectacle in Tokyo, which is always over much too quickly.

Spring has just arrived here in Tokyo and so there is still not much fresh green on the trees. The white-pink cherry blossoms, which peeked out here and there, were setting the mood for the coming weeks, in which spring will put on its most beautiful dress.

We still had most of our day ahead of us and the next thing on our agenda was breakfast. Until then, the area around Senso-ji would slowly fill up with visitors from all over the world, who also wanted to go where we had just been.

But since we had already done our first round of that day, we could now look back with a relaxed mind, knowing that we had started this day just right. Blue skies with mild sunshine, a historic temple complex and a bit of cherry blossom to top it all off. There is no better way to start the day.