March 11, 2009
Asakusa
So yeah, I happened to be in Tokyo at the time of the yearly Hagoita (badminton racquet?) festival. Hardly sports equipment, these boards are decorated with intricate embroidery in the form of women in Kimonos and white makeup or actors from Kabuki theatre.
So Isuzu, her husband and I ventured out to Asakusa (Ginza line, last stop)
We ate Fried Manju (wow, Linda just exploded with joy) and Kaminari Okoshi; hard rice/bean sweets. Both were delicious
After this, we had eel for dinner (further Linda explosions) and wandered around a bit.
Basically, Asakusa is your one stop shop for all kinds of Japanese souvenirs. “Ninjya” shoes, sake bottles shaped like gourds, prints (the cheap kind, mind you) and dolls are all on offer for visitors. This means you will see many many foreigners here, all with terrible or no Japanese skills. I find this entertaining; not sure if that’s weird.
“So this is like, a shrine?”
It’s a temple, actually. Sensoji is large, red, and very famous. One of the main attraction is the How-is-it-being-held-up-it’s-fucking-huge Lantern at the front gates. Walking through that leads to an elegant display of true Japanese culture souvenir shops.
My tip? Only go there for the relatives or friends you feel obligated to get generic gifts for…or for intentionally tacky souvenirs.
Nest stop: HAKUBA!
