Click around on the map, zoom in, and you can see the layout of the Asakusa grounds.
Drawing a Omikuji
I'Outside the Sensō-ji temple, people coming to worship (and tourists) are able to draw a Omikuji (paper fortune). A building houses what appears to be hundreds of drawers- each with piles of fortunes in them. In order to draw a fortune you first give a donation of 100 yen (10 cents) and then shake a hexagonal metal container. You can hear sticks/dowel rods) rattling in the container until one begins to poke out of the opening. Once you draw a stick, each has a character on it that matches with one of the gold drawers. You then open the drawer and take out your omikuji. I've shared a photo of my fortune below- much to my disappointment, I drew a "bad" fortune. I've been told that bad fortunes are common at this shrine, so I felt a bit better. I felt infinitely better, however, after I was told there was a way I could prevent my bad fortune from coming to fruition. Tradition says that if you fold up your fortune and tie it to iron rods next to the temple, you are free from the bad fortune. I really wanted to take my fortune home to show my students, but at the same time, it looked like a pretty bad one, so I opted to tie it to the rods and leave it at Asakusa.