Tori-no-ichi

Those hanging things are the lucky charms.

The other night, Julian and I went into the Tori-no-ichi fare in Asakusa. The event usually happens twice on the month of November, but this year it happened three times. Yesterday was the third.
 Basically, during the fare a bunch of booths put colorful good luck tokens on display, allowing for people to purchase them for their homes. At the entrance to the fare, people bring the ones from last year, and they are gathered and burned.
The fare opens right smack on midnight and stretches on for the whole day. You wouldn't think there would be people there at 1 in the morning, but the attendance is enormous. You can barely walk because of the sheer number of people.

Julian emerges from a sea of people.

The luck charms themselves come in many different shapes and sizes, but all of them are very cluttered and colorful. They usually feature traditional folkloric things such as the maneki-neko cats, but some of them are much more contemporary and have instantly recognizable icons such as Hello Kitty. They're also quite expensive, making it a small wonder that there are so many people who buy them every year. Julian bought a small one (three inches large) for the equivalent of 20$, making me wonder at the price of the standard ones, which are around a foot wide and high.
I wish I could have taken better pictures, but the gigantic crowd made such a thing impossible. Woe is me.