Japan Travel Log - Day 6 (Asakusa)

Today, we're headed towards Asakusa, a popular tourist destination.

This is how you do the Cowboy Jiggle heh..heh..

Morning rush hour (heading towards Tokyo). This is not the Express train and so has fewer passengers. Otherwise, it would be packed like sardines in a can.

The brief story of how Asakusa began, is, that around 628AD, a group of fishermen caught in their nets and landed a small statue of the Buddha. The village headman took this as a sign, became a priest, and built the temple that is now Sensouji. The story of this place spread and over time a town grew up and around the temple.

Waiting for the water bus

To get there, we're took a water-bus so that we can enjoy a leisurely cruise along the waterway and also enjoy the scenery. I love boat rides anyway (except small rickety ones and in choppy water....which turns me green..hehe).

Map of the waterway

The ride took us about 15-20 mins I think (can't quite remember now), crossing under no fewer than 13 bridges of various designs and age. Hiro took the time to relax and enjoy a cup of beer while the 3 of us busied ourselves with our cameras (as usual).

Say 'Cheese'

'Cheese'

A very popular wholesale market for fish and seafood

'Fire-boats', the waterway's Fire-engines

Floating restaurants

Yuki was waiting for us when we arrived and together we walked a short distance to the entrance of the Sensouji Temple. The big gateway with the huge lantern hanging from it is an unmistakeable landmark of Asakusa.

Here we go again...

The rickshaw pullers here are strong and young. As opposed to the ones at home.

The street beyond the gate is lined on both sides with small shops selling souvenirs, japanese sweets and cakes. It was packed with people, both locals and visitors.

So packed that Hiro was afraid we (the foreigners) would get lost so he made sure he tagged behind Ivee and I while Yuki stayed close to Judy. But both Ivee and I were difficult to hang on to, haha, because we were totally absorbed by the assortment of goodies on display. We scooted here and there, from shop to shop like we were in a trance and poor Hiro had quite a task keeping us in sight :-)

Souvenir-hunting

Pet accessories shop. The poodle by the entrance is real, but the rest are dolls.

Making sweetcakes. Kinda like making our 'kuih kapit' eh? :-)

At the end of the line of shops, the street opened up onto huge courtyard, in the middle of which sits the temple.

Hana had joined our party by now. Before entering the temple, we stopped by a booth selling talismans. They had all sorts: for success in exams, love, marriage; for good health, etc. Different designs and different colours differentiated one from the other. And I'm sure the Japanese can tell immediately what talisman one has on just by looking at the colour and design.

Hmmm...let's see, I could do with a bit of divine intervention in....? (Talisman booth)

On the right of us, just after the talisman booth and just before the steps up to the temple was a kind of well or water trough with ladles all around the side of it. We saw people scooping up water from the well into their mouths. They sort of gargled the water before spitting it out again into the drain beside the well. Our Japanese friends told us it was a purification ritual before entering the temple (and is commonly practised at most japanese temples as I found out from the internet).

Here let me help you. (At the purification water trough)

After having 'purified' ourselves, we then climbed the few steps leading up to the main hall of the temple. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos inside the temple and therefore have nothing to show here. Those interested can visit this blog to see some really cool photos and good explanations of the place.

Inside the temple, we found a table on which sat several levels of drawers (kinda like the drawers found in chinese sinseh shops where they keep their medicinal roots and herbs). On the table itself were a couple of cylinders with a tiny hole at the top. These were filled with bamboo sticks with numbers printed on one end of it. These sticks fortell your future. Just like the ones that can be found in chinese temple in Malaysia and like those we see in Hong Kong chinese televisions series (or movies).

The idea is to shake the cylinder until a bamboo stick pops out of the hole. This stick will bear a number. Look for the drawer with the matching number and withdraw a paper from it. On this piece of paper will be written your future, whether good or bad. We decided to give it a try, and suffice to say, I shall have good fortune the whole year through...hehe :-)

Outside one of the many restaurants found within the temple area.

Soon it was time for lunch, and we settled on a cute and cosy typical japanese restaurant near the entrance to the temple.

After lunch, we did a little bit more shopping and then it was time to leave Asakusa. We had to get back to the hotel to freshen up before heading for one final bit of jamming at the same hall we danced in the past weekend.

Oooff!! Help me get them boots off girl.

Outside Hiro's house (just before heading back to the hotel)

Next: Our Hakone Adventure :-)

Japan Travel Log - Day 5 (Ginza)

With the workshops behind us, I can now relax and fully concentrate on taking in the sights of Japan.

I'd visited this country 23 years ago under the sponsorship of my local Rotary Club. My Interact friends and I had the privilege of 'home-staying' with Japanese families for 3 solid weeks. At the end of the 3 weeks, not one of us was ready to go home and tears flowed easily because we had really loved our stay in Japan. Since then, I've not had the chance to return to this beautiful country until now.

Initially, Ivee and I had planned on going to Tokyo Disneyland (TDL) but after the 'disastrous' 1st day of getting lost we were not that confident about 'mastering' the subways. Anyhow, both Ivee and I have been to TDL before during our own previous visits to Tokyo. So we finally decided to join Michiko and Judy for a trip to Ginza, the shopping district.

What an interesting pedestrian bridge

The day started with Hiro picking us up at our hotel, in his car, for brunch. At the restaurant, we were joined by Yuki. After brunch, Yuki had prior appointments to keep and said her goodbyes.

Our chariot [Hiro's car :-)]

Hiro then took us to a nearby street that was lined with sakura trees so that we could see first hand sakura trees in full bloom.

Not a sakura, but just as lovely - The Camelia

Actually, the single petal sakuras (the popular variety) had already blossomed and were now starting to fall. But another one, the double petal sakuras were only just beginning to bloom.

Double petal sakuras

Hiro parked his car and we took a leisurely stroll down one of the streets just relaxing and soaking in the sights, sounds and culture of the place. We were also very busy using up the memory card of our digital cameras by shooting everything in sight LOL :-) Suffice to say, we had a jolly good time talking, laughing and hamming it up with poses before the camera.

The many roles of Hiro (line dancer, chauffeur, tour guide and porter LOL)

After the walk, Hiro drove us around Tokyo for a quick city tour.

Highway into Tokyo

One of the many ferris-wheels to be found in Tokyo

Tokyo skyline

The Rainbow Bridge

Scenes of Tokyo city centre

An odd but interesting piece of architecture

'We're here' somewhere..... (map of Tokyo city with the Imperial Palace in the centre surrounded by several moats)

Next, we stopped at a lovely park opposite the Imperial Palace. Needless to say, more photo-taking took place. haha.

Homeless people taking a breather under the shade of the trees

Ungggh...Darn! Can't quite reach it

Nyeh.. nyeh nyeh.. nyeh nyeh. I touched it. Guess I'm taller than you are

Entrance to the Imperial Palace in the distance

Hiro the tour guide.

Hiro: Over there is the Imperial Palace...blah..blah..blah...
Judy: Hmmm...

Hiro: And over there is the...blah, blah, blah...

Mei Ling: Uh huh...

Soon, Hiro had to say goodbye as well. But not before he drove us to the train station where we took the next train to Ginza. Michiko was now our guide.

Everything between the station and reaching Ginza is a blur. All I can remember is following Michiko very closely.

Makes me dizzy just looking at that convoluted network of train lines

Finally, we reached Ginza. The first thing that hit me was the number of people around. It was just such a busy place filled with tourists and locals.

The whole mainstreet was lined with shops selling branded goods....Swavroski, Burberry, Prada, etc. The Japanese here were well dressed and well groomed. Highly fashionable....which made me feel like a fashion misfit in my jeans and plain top ;-)

Our first stop for the day...a toy store! Why? Because Judy and I have to fulfill our promises to some eager beavers back home about bringing back some things for them. Judy wanted to get her 2 grandsons some Kamen Riders (something like the Power Rangers) and I had promised my 2 youngsters at home I'd get them a few original Pokemons. They had even given me a list of names of the Pokemons they'd like to have. Both have got a Pokemon collection going you see.

Michiko took us to the biggest toy store in Ginza. It had 4 levels filled with nothing but toys, toys, toys. The moment I stepped in I couldn't help but feel like a little girl once more. I was totally absorbed by the variety of things they had for sale.

We each went our way to search for the toys we wanted. Michiko stayed with Judy mostly and Ivee and I were not worried about losing each other because she had the presence of mind to bring along 2 walkie-talkies for the trip. Ingenius!

I don't know how long we stayed in that toystore but after paying for our selected 'treasures' we finally left the place and headed to our next destination.

My stash (well....they're not all mine actually)

Ivee wanted to get some cosmetics and so we hunted for a departmental store selling just that. When we located one, Ivee went into 'shopping' mode. I'm not much of a cosmetics person and Judy couldn't stand the heat in the place so we decided to go out for some fresh air.

Judy and I had a nice tete-a-tete while waiting for Ivee to finish her shopping. I must say that I found Judy to be a really nice person (not that I thought her otherwise before that). Very friendly, warm, and a great sense of humour. It was easy to warm up to her and be at ease.

What can I say; I'm a sucker for flowers

Cute carnation 'kittens'

In a Japanese traditional snacks shop

Michiko had to catch a train back to Yuzawa at about 7pm and so before she said goodbye we decided to have dinner together before we went our separate ways.

While searching for a nice cosy place to eat and rest, Ivee and I came across a fruit stall. Check out the pictures below. The bananas were huge. And guess what. We found durians being sold in Japan! Observe the price tag.

Price of durian 5,000 yen. Equivalent to approx. Rm150 ++ (BIG WOW!)

After dinner, we were to make our own way back to the hotel without Michiko. Hiro was aware of this and had earlier given both Judy and I a detailed sketch of the stations (and the stops in between) that concerned us. He called it his 'love letter' to us. LOL

The sketch showed us the first station at which we were to board the train, where we were to get off to change trains and the many stations in between before we reached our final destination at Omori Kaigen station located just next to our hotel.

I must say his 'love letter' worked....to some extent :-) It still required a bit of 'brain' work between the 3 of us to fill in certain missing pieces of information. But we're an intelligent trio, we are ;-)

That concludes the first day of our free days after the workshops. A day well spent, we went to bed happy and satisfied with what we've accomplished (both in spending lots of 'moolah' and getting back safely).