Asakusa de imasu

Thursday 23 June 2016

We were glad that we took the easy option and stayed at an airport hotel overnight at Narita rather than travelling into Tokyo.  This meant we could sleep in a bit and enjoy the hotel buffet breakfast inc;using omelette Japanese style - cooked with chopsticks and a deft hand - oishii deshita! It was raining in the morning so a slow start and a trip on the Shinkansen into Tokyo (Ueno) was all we really achieved.

Arriving at Ueno Station we really knew we were in Tokyo - it was busy, slightly familiar but mostly confusing and disorientating! The rain had eased to a light drizzle as we blundered around trying to get our bearings - coming out of the wrong station exit and not having mobile data switched on for google maps did not help! We wandered through the back streets of Taito, slightly lost but mostly heading in the right direction. We stumbled across an umbrella store - one of the many little enterprises in these Tokyo backstreets - an purchased one for Joel for 450 yen (bargin!) 

We finally arrived at our accommodation - Khaosan World Asakusa Ryokan & Hostel - with the 20 minute walk from Ueno Station taking us more than an hour. As our room wasn't ready we left our suitcases and, since the rain had stopped, we walked over to Asakusa to get something to eat. We had lunch at a "hole in the wall" eatery - picking Japanese dishes from the menu (pictures and pointing helped) the manager took us over to a kind of vending machine where we fed in 5000 yen, he punched in our order, out came the change - then a little while later the chef came out to our sidewalk table with our tasty lunches - dumplings, fried chicken and rice and ginger pork with egg and rice.

Back to Khaosan to quickly check into our room, then off for a walk to see the sights of Asakusa, namely the famous Buddist temple, Senso-ji. This is the most visited temple in Tokyo and, yup, with the sun shining this afternoon, it was busy but very interesting and beautiful (even thought the Five storied pagoda was surrounded by scaffold).

Kerryn tried her luck with an omikuji (paper fortune) at the main temple - 100 yen coin in the slot then shake the silver canister and pull out a numbered (kanji) stick then take a paper with your fortune written on it (in Kanji & English) from a correspondingly numbered drawer - we were relieved that she was promised good fortune! 

Then wandered around Senso-ji grounds - more temples and impressive gates as well as lots of small shops selling trinkets, snacks, drinks, etc  

We then sat in the shade and had a late afternoon tea of pikelets and jam cakes (packet from supermarket) and can of coffee from now or the ubiquitous vending machines.

Walked to the Sumida River and a spectacular view of the Tokyo Skytree,

 

then headed back via the Don Quijote supermarket to get some supplies for dinner and breakfast - wow, what a confronting experience! There were some familiar items but in different packaging (e.g. Milo in a ziplock pack rather than a tin) but loads of foods and other goods that we had never seen before - all in bright packaging with cheerful kanji (but no English descriptions or instructions) - it all made for a very interesting shop but dinner cooked up in the Hostel kitchen - stir-fry noodles with chicken, red capsicum and bok choy in a mystery sauce (we had no idea what it was but looked OK on the packet) - was pretty tasty after the long afternoon walk!