City Guide

Asakusa is one of the most popular places for sightseeing in Tokyo. There are always a lot of foreigners as well as Japanese people visiting there.
In Asakusa, you'll enjoy not only the temple but also shopping at small stores selling traditional Japanese stuff alongside the streets.
There is Kaminari-mon at the main gate to the temple (in the picture above). The huge lantern hung there was donated by the pioneer of Panasonic in 1960.
When you pass under the gate, Nakamise-dori is waiting for you. Alongside this street, there are full of small stores which sell a variety souveniors and Japanese snacks. It would be interesting to just look around these stores and also see a craftsman making the snacks.
At the end of Nakamise-dori, the temple, Senso-ji, is located.

>> How to Visit a Temple

First, you get ready yourself for praying before heading for the temple.

At a hand-wash station, you're supposed to clean yourself before you go praying. You wash your hands first, and rinse out your mouse (never drink the water!).
At an incense holder, you can buy inceses and put them there, or just take the smoke.
It's said that the smoke from a incense holder has healing power. Therefore, people put the smoke on a part of body they have a problem.
After that, you go up stairs and stand in front of the Buddha statue. But you can't usually see the statue clearly because it's hidden in the back.
You put certain amount of money into the wodden box(in the picture), join your hands, and pray.

>> Ningyo-yaki

A speciality of Asakusa is Ningyo-yaki, which is a small bun with bean-jam filling. This been jam made from azuki(read beans) is popularly used for Japanese snacks and sweets. As it's called Ningyo(meaning doll)-yaki, each bun is a shape of something related to Asakusa. You'll be fascinated to see a worker making such small buns very neatly.