Photo story of a mesmerizing and a rare snowfall experience in Asakusa

2015/01/23

Snowfall in Tokyo is rare, although in the past few years, when it does snow it creates a white blanket lasting weel for a couple of days to clear. The white blanket of snow in the metropolis makes for pretty pictures, but grinds the traffic to a halt even with 5 cm of pileup. Unique ‘snow make-up’ (loosely translated from the Japanese word “yuki-keshou”) of the popular tourist destination Asakusa, shows a rare snow pileup mode in this otherwise bustling place in Tokyo.

The photo story brings you the scene in Asakusa from January of 2013 when Tokyo experienced day long snowfall on the 13th of Jan. The Gojyu-no-Tou (Five-Storied Pagoda) with the clock showing 6 p.m. in the evening is time of crowds in good number, but the snow brought all the activity to a standstill.

The entrance gate before the main hall Hondo with the blanket of snow in front of it. Barricades were put around many places since the snow collected on the top of the gate used to occasionally slip down with a thud.

The Hondo or the main hall of the Sensoji was also barricaded and the doors were also closed… The gods were also probably freezing and may have taken half a day off.

The Asahi Building with the foam like decoration on the top and the Asakusa traffic Square with no vehicles at 17:30 in the evening. This is an impossible case on a regular day, the traffic is heavy at this time of the usual day. It was still snowing strongly as can be seen in the snap above.

The shopping street leading to the Sensoji was already dead with all the shops closed down early due to the snowfall. The neighbourhood was so silent that one could literally hear his own breath. It was extremely cold, but very serene, with no crowds around.

Walking back to the Asakusa station, we took this last shot with the Gojyu-no-Tou (Five-Storied Pagoda) in the background and the tree branches with the snow accumulated on it in the front. If you do experience snow in Tokyo, maybe its time to go to Asakusa and experience this frozen state of Asakusa, the location is below (Google Maps). Asakusa is conveniently located on the last station on the Ginza Line Station, Asakusa.