Asakusa
Started the day by visiting a local food vendor. This place is frequented by the local neighbourhood Oyaji (old guys) who come daily for their noodle fix. I have to admit that I never experienced this kind of ordering method beforehand. Basically you put your order on a vending machine by placing coins into it.
Once you’ve made your selection, the machine will print a ticket which you will then give to the waitress before you sit down and wait for your meal. I thought it was a rather nifty thing and the food is not bad either. I ended up ordering Chicken Katsu Curry (650 Yen) because the time was close to lunch and I haven’t had any breakfast.
Once that was over, I decided to walk around the neighborhood. Asakusa is quite an interesting place. It’s a mixture of the old and new culture of Japan. So while you can see places such as Starbucks and KFC, if you want you can always go to one of the food vendors to buy a bento/takoyaki.
Anyway, Asakusa is definitely a good place if you’re looking after some traditional Japanese foods as well as presents to bring back home. And I am not even talking about Nakamise shopping arcade just yet. I’m talking about the surrounding shops around the neighborhood. It was definitely hard for me to not succumb to the buying mentality.
In the end, I had no choice but to force myself to remember that I’m still going to be here for another 2.5 months and at the end of that month, I’ll be going back to Tokyo anyway. Somehow I managed to made it through without buying anything much. The only thing that I bought was this really nice traditional cake called Kibidango.
This is some kind of glutinous rice cake mixed together with peanuts and coated with brown sugar. You can get this at the Nakamise shopping arcade and I’ll talk about this and Sensoji-temple next after I get some sleep and sort the pictures that I took while I went there. I think I went a little bit overboard when I took the pictures.
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I find Japan to be a great place and I’m one of those people who love learning about their culture. Someday, I’ll visit Japan. After reading your entries, I find all your experiences there quite interesting. You seem to discuss about where you visit thoroughly. After reading many blog entries about people who visit Japan, you’re one of the first to provide pictures. I’m SOO HAPPY! Asakusa seems to be a great place to live in, and like you said, I like the way they mix the old with the new. And their food look pretty tasty to me. Anyway, I’ll close this little comment and I’m looking forward to the rest of your entries about your visits.
Asakusa looks beautiful! Enjoy yourself to the fullest.
I cant get over how pretty everything is. So, did you interact or meet n e ppl over there yet? Do you feel lonely having gone by yourself and do you think you’ll ever be homesick, lol.
Melissa, I interact with people but mostly because I don’t know my way so I end up asking other people’s help for direction, etc. This is not my first overseas trip on my own so I don’t think I’ll get homesick. The only thing that worries me at the moment is earthquake. It’s quite a disturbing thing to experience. We got two of them here yesterday. I’ll say something about it later on.
Wow, sounds like you’re doing pretty good! I had a ton of fun when I first came to Japan, nearly 8 years ago. It was supposed to be a 10 month stint, turned into… well… I’m sitting here in an office in Tokyo :D
Another nice spot to visit would be Tsukiji Fish Market, and around Tokyo Dome. Wander a bit north of Tokyo Dome to Kasuga, and you enter a totally different world with traditional winding little streets and old houses and small mom&pop shops, very atmospheric. Then head over to check out Tokyo University.
Weather’s kinda shitty now, but it’s supposed to get warm and sunny on Thursday.
If you’re interested, Yuricon is taking place this Saturday in Kojimachi (central Tokyo), from 1pm to all night karaoke fest.
Awesome account of your journey, I like all the pictures too. How exactly are you doing all this from a hostel? I guess you brought your laptop with you, and you can plug it in there? And you’re still watching (and downloading) new anime too!
No Make Girl, the weather has been horrid in the past two days. I can’t go out anywhere far without feeling like I’m in Antartica. I was planning to go to some areas in Tokyo but in the end have to cancel the plan because it’s too insane to contemplate walking to some far-off place in this kind of weather. I ended up just going back and forth to Akihabara.
It’s a shame, really since tomorrow I already have to leave Tokyo and go to Okazaki for my study. But I think there’ll be a free time around May and I’ll still have to go back to Tokyo at the end of my study. So hopefully the weather will be better then. I can’t believe the weather is supposed to get better on Thursday when I’m not in the city anymore.
Epi, the hostel has an internet connection (I have to pay for it but at the rate of 525 Yen per day, I think it’s a steal). And yes, I brought my laptop with me and since most laptops have 100-240v, there’s no voltage problem here. I simply had to purchase one of those connectors to change the plug to Japanese plug. But other than that, it’s not too much of a problem. I don’t know what will happen once arrived in my dormitory though. They have internet access but I think they block some ports. I hope they don’t block the BT port.
Thats kool how you eat there (about puting your order in a vending machine)!! I wish i can try it something. Hehe i just love your pictures ^^
About the interaction, well that was an obvious, I meant more around the lines of making friends, but you’ve only been there like two or three days, so probably a dumb question. Is it hard walking through the streets, is their many pedestrians in your area. I saw this show and everyone was all rushing places and mad busy. I’d probably trip and be run over by thousands of ppl, lol.
Whoa, the pictures are *gorgeous* — they look gorgeous! Just as a quick question, I noticed that there are a lot more bicycles in the pictures than one would expect in, say, Chicago — is bicycling really /that/ common, or not so much?
PS: Menouthis, you are awesome :)
David, bicycling is *very* common here in Japan. Most people, especially students have a bike to ride too. Actually, those bikes are far more dangerous for the pedestrian than the cars because the bikes go through the same pedestrian line as people who walk. So sometimes when you walk leisurely, there is a chance that you almost get hit by a passing bike if you’re not careful. I think this almost happened to me way to often now that I start to get anxious everytime I walk around with a walkman.