Well it was Asakusa today and what a wonderful way to spend our first full day in Tokyo. As we found our way to Asakusa station and exited we became very excited. We were greeted by the view of the Tokyo city. With some lanterns greeting us from a local building, we knew it would be a good day.
As we walked towards Sensoji Shrine we past a variety of shops many cooking sweets, dumplings and many other goodies. We have also found the people in Tokyo are very friendly. We were stopped by a few Japanese during the day and spoken to for them to practice their English. One fellow welcomed us to Japan.
Anyway we knew we had reached Sensoji Temple when we saw a crowd of people taking photos of Kaminarimon Gate, and when I say crowd i mean about a hundred or so people. The gate itself was amazing and the huge lantern was awesome. After a few photos and one group photo taken by a very nice Japanese man we continued through the gate. Behind the gate was a market that had stalls stretching for a kilometer. We spent a good 4 hours browsing the stores and trying some goods.
The best snack we had was a biscuit that had red bean custard in it, it might sound a bit wrong but it wasn’t it was YUMMAH! (Except for the prepackaged ones that look like their brains were poking out of their head!) They were 200 yen for 10 of these individual wrapped beautiful snacks, a peasants fee. I found a stitch charm at the market, Anthony got a coin purse and sword keyring and Lee and Rob got very cool watches. We are still waiting for Rob to tell us the time (his watch has a boot time!).
The shrine was interesting, we saw people putting incense in there faces, drinking and spitting water and then throwing money into a huge vent like thing. Rob had a go at this as well. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the area, we saw a few more shrines and an amusement park.
Finding lunch proved to be difficult at first, but we found a small restaurant opposite McDonald’s, which is very different in Japan (they have prawn burgers! SCORE!). After ordering successfully we enjoyed our meal and Anthony and Sarma ordered some Sake which we all tried (really sucks your cheeks in, i liked it so much i had another shot). We also had sake at the market but it was different it was sweet sake, and therefore had no alcohol (its made just before the fermentation process and a ton of sugar is added to the batch).
I got to get a picture with some local girls in kimonos, they were very nice (Steve was just happy snapping and didn’t want to ask them, so i asked them for him. I think he was happy with the result). Steve also got a picture with one of the locals (very funny guy).
We got to learn a few local sayings today
Arigato = thank you
Sumi masen = excuse me
Domo = very
We had dinner at an Italian restaurant, not to bad but nothing like back home (not bad?! Gawd, it was the worst meal I’ve ever had! We’ve renamed the restaurant from La Pausa to La Puzza)
After dinner we did a walk. It was a fantastic day today and a great way to start our Japanese adventure.