This morning we met with Fusako, Kyoko-sensei's (my Japanese teacher) cousin (well, actually her younger sister's husband's cousin's wife. But, "cousin" is so much easier) in the lobby of our hotel.
She took us to Asakusa (kind of the "old part" of Tokyo). It has Tokyo's oldest temple (Asakusa Jinja also known as Senso-ji), which was huge. The Kaminari-mon Gate at the entrance to the temple is a very imposing (as well as famous) place. We stopped to get a few pictures of it.
As well as one with the three of us (Ted, Me, and Fusako) in front of it.
The road leading up to the temple (which is named Nakamise-dori) had a bunch of gift shops lining both sides of it. There was lots of stuff. I only bought a couple smaller things today, but I will probably come back here at the end of the trip. I think there are a lot of good smaller gifts that I can get here.
After walking past all the gift stalls, you approach Hozomon Gate. And just to the left of the entrance is a small kindergarten. It happened to be the first day of school when we visited Asakusa, so there were lot of little kids running around in their uniforms. Too cute! (Picture on the right)
Also from the Hozomon Gate, you could see Senso-ji's 5-story pagoda.
As you approach the main temple building, you can see the incense large burners. These are used by wafting the smoke from the burner over your body in order to purify it.
And just to the left of the of the pictures above is the Nadi Botokesan Buddha. You're supposed to rub this statue where you have aches and pains in your body and it's supposed to cure them. Also, it is done for good luck as well. Fusako explained and demonstrated this for us. Then it was our turn, because by that point, my back was hurting.
After that, we checked out the Main temple building. Inside was pretty dark, so a lot of the pictures came out too dark or blurry to see. But here are a couple:
And a couple more shots of the temple grounds, which were pretty big.
Just outside of Asakusa Shrine is the oldest amusement park in Tokyo. We didn't go inside because none of us really wanted to ride anything at that point (and it was a bit expensive to just go inside and look around).
After checking out the temple, we stopped at a small restaurant and had okonomiyake (kind of like Japanese pizza). I'd heard of it before, but this was the first time that I had actually eaten it. It was absolutely delicious. I'll have to get some more while we're here.
After lunch we headed off to Shinjuku. Unfortunately, Fusako's daughter wasn't feeling well, so we parted ways there. I wish she could have stayed longer with us a little longer. But at least we'll get to see her again when we come back thru Tokyo at the end of the trip. I really enjoyed meeting her. She seems like a really nice person.
Since we were in Shinjuku (the west side of Shinjuku to be exact),
we went to the Sumitomo Building, which has a free observatory on the 51st floor and too a lot of pictures.
Most of the west side of Shinjuku is just large office buildings, so we decided to head back thru Shinjuku station to the East Side of Shinjuku. The station is huge, and pretty easy to get lost in. We had to stop and ask directions just to get to the other side.
We did a lot of shopping and wandering around Eastern Shinjuku. We stopped at the Kinokuniya, Tower Records and Virgin Music stores. And, after quick trip to Shibuya where we grabbed some Udon for dinner, it was back to Shinjuku for a little more shopping and sightseeing.
Finally, my feet were hurting so bad (who am I kidding, everything was sore), we headed back to the hotel and called it an evening.
