Asakusa/Sky Tree

On the 20th we went to Asakusa. This was my 4th visit, but I was happy to go again. Plus this was the first time that it wasn't raining, which was nice... We saw the temple and the pagoda and the stalls. Then we headed back round to get some lunch.

We ate at a fairly typical Japanese restaurant. There is a ticket machine near the door, you pay and get a ticket and take it to the counter, and within minutes they have the food ready, which you take to a seat along the side. The seats are bar style, designed so you're in and out within a short space of time. More than one person came in, ate, and left whilst we were being, apparently, quite leisurely. I had some noodles and Dan had a curry. After that we got a small pot of icecream from nearby to sample some of the more interesting flavours of Baskin Robbins (love potion?)

After that we walked to the Sky Tree. It opened about 1.5 months ago, and is the 2nd tallest building in the world. At the time tickets to access the observation deck were still reserved and probably horrendously expensive. However they have a whole shopping area at the base of the tower which was interesting to walk around and very, very busy.

It was quite surreal to walk from the relatively traditional area of Asakusa across the river to the Sky Tree. It's quite dizzying how massive it, and the complex around it, is. They've even renamed a train station nearby after it. Worth a visit even if you don't go up to the top.

Mum and Paul visit Part One.

From the 24th of May to the 28th of May Mum and Paul came to visit. It was a short visit but we managed to pack a lot in so I'm splitting it up into two parts :3

On the 24th, a Thursday, I went to pick them up early in the morning. This was my first time getting the train to the airport, and it was surprisingly easy and cheap (about 1300 yen total) compared to the coach we took when we first got here. Admittedly we were horrendously jet lagged then so navigating the Tokyo train network for the first time probably wouldn't have gone well. Aside from a slight getting-on-the-wrong-train mishap I managed to get to the airport fine, and after a short wait at the gate they were here!

After we had got back to my apartment I had to leave them for a nap and cycle back to the university to do an test. The nap was appreciated though, so it wasn't like I was abandoning them... After I had cycled back home a few hours later we got on the train to the next stop where their hotel was.

After checking in we were all pretty tired so we just had a wander around the surrounding area, got some noms and then head to bed.

The next day we headed to Asakusa to see the usual sights. We stopped in a café after wandering around and then hopped back on the train to head to Ueno. We decided to go to the zoo there. It's relatively cheap to get into and they have a pair of pandas loaned from China. I'm not a massive fan of zoos but it was a good opportunity to see some animals I might not have the opportunity to see otherwise (i.e. the pandas :3) 

The pandas were an interesting experience, and we also saw some lions, gorillas and the cutest monkeys with the fluffiest tails. Possibly the cutest thing was actually a baby prairie dog. It was soo tiny. We actually only ended up seeing about half the zoo, as it was close to closing time, they charged for the monorail between the two parts (??) and we were already incredibly tired from walking about. 

We had lunch before that in Saizeriya, an italian-themed 'family restaurant'. They essentially have a buzzer you can press when you want the waitress' attention, or to make your order, and they bring you the bill when they bring your food (well, that is true of most restaurants here, not just family ones). Why that hasn't caught on elsewhere, I don't know. It's amazing.

more in part 2 :3

Golden Week/Asakusa.

Last week there were a group of bank holidays that are all very close together. It is known as 'Golden Week'. Some businesses close on the days in between the bank holidays so people get a full week off. We still had lessons on Monday and Tuesday, but then had the 'rest' of the week off. 

On Friday I went to Asakusa with Nozomi. I've been to Asakusa before; it's in Northern Tokyo so one of the closer cities and convenient to get to. It's famous for Kaminarimon, a large entrance gate and Sensou-ji, the Buddhist temple which Kaminarimon leads to. 

For lunch we had okonomiyaki and monjayaki, the Kanto region equivalent. Okonomiyaki is a type of savoury pancake that can have pretty much any ingredients. The particular place we went to was cook-it-yourself, so you sit either side of a hot plate, they just give you the raw ingredients in a bowl and you fry it and flip it yourself. Monjayaki is more liquidy, and you scrape bits off the hot plate and eat them rather than chopping it up into bits. 

After that we headed to Sensou-ji. Being Golden Week, it was packed with a mix of Japanese people and tourists. It was also heavily raining, so just walking up to the temple was a bit of an umbrella-dodging nightmare. The temple is very impressive and definitely worth it, however. We got fortunes for 100 yen and went inside the temple, where people throw money into a grate and pray. As it was so busy, people were throwing money from several metres back; all the money flying through the air was an interesting experience ^_^ 

We went and had a look in some of the kimono shops, got a bit frightened by the prices, and bought some of the local sweet treats, ningyouyaki. They are pastry/caky casings filled with red bean paste, which is a common ingredient in sweets here. It is sort of a savoury sweetness, and very tasty.

After that we went over towards the bank of the river and looked at the Tokyo Sky Tree. It's a new building due to open later this month which is now the second tallest in the world. It's about twice as tall as Tokyo Tower. 

So I had a good Golden Week, even if most of it was spent studying. The weather on the Saturday was also wonderful, which put me in a very good mood ^_^

(Photo is from the first time we went to Asakusa, so there were a lot less people. Still raining, though :p)