peaceful matsuri and yakuza

Asakusa is famous for its old town. You can see traditional houses and a life style like there are little market shops. I like its warm atmosphere. People are open.

Today is the second day of matsuri, local festival. In general a block of the area has their own mikoshi(float), and people live in the same block carry it together. The local said that there were 100 mikoshis(I doubt it but there were tons of them wondering around the area for three days during this festival). All mikoshi seem similar for me but people's costume make differences.

One group of mikoshi got my attention because all people around it have tattoo. It would not take time before realizing them were yakuza(gangs) from their faces. It was interesting that their tattoo were kind of old fashioned for me(well my image of them were from an old movie). Well, at first I thought those people were just joking by disguising as yakuza, but I became to be convinced they really were because they did not leave for wondering with mikoshi after having people take their pictures, maybe because technically they do not belong to any blocks of the area so they made up mikoshi for their own.

It was too crowded that I did not spend time there for long. I think it is a relaxing place to come during week days because there are many sightseeing people on weekend and holiday. Sensouji(temple), that famous Kaminarimon(gate), and bunch of shops between the temple and gate selling kind of traditional Japanese stuffs are nice to check out. For me the main shop street is quite boring but the second street besides is okey.