Our first sight for the day is Senso-ji temple. Built in 645, it’s the oldest temple in Tokyo.

When we first got to the temple, I was confused. There was a temple gate (with a lot of tourists taking selfies) but beyond the template gate there was not a temple but a large shopping street. That turned out to be part of the temple complex somehow.

At the end of the shopping street, a second, very similar gate led to an area that was more like what I thought a temple would be like, with large lanterns and ornate roofs,

There were quite a lot of people here. Many seemed to be there for family or couples photos, dressed up in traditional kimonos.

Right next to the Buddhist temple, there was a Shinto shrine. Places of worship for two separate religions co-existing side by side, and the same visitors worshipping first at one and then at the other.

We did read up on the proper rituals for both, but I felt uncomfortable with the idea of going through the motions without believing in any of it, and just stayed respectfully to the side.

There was also a small, beautiful park, with a waterfall and a koi pond, as well as several small shrines and altars that we didn’t really understand much about, since the signage was all in Japanese only.

This being our first temple visit, I felt mostly clueless. Which bits are special about this one? Which ones are typical?

The few informational plaques that were in English – both here and later at other sites – had a bizarre focus on dates and measurements. This one is better than most in that it actually tells us the history of the object that we’re looking at, before it dives into precise measurements (217.9 cm in height, not 218!). But in general we soon gave up expecting any insight from info plaques, and their millimetre precision became a running joke between us.