Between 4:30 and 5:00 am, EST, we may
have experienced the most stressful 30 minutes in our recent
memories, where Amanda and I needed to buy some lunch/dinner, pickup
our luggage, and find our platform to Kyoto in 30 minutes, which is
nothing to sneeze at. We also managed to ask 6 different people for
directions, I rolled my suitcase on Amanda's foot, and we went to the
basement, first floor, basement again, before finally returning to
the first floor. #trulylost
The day started at a much more relaxing
pace then the previous in that I got to sleep until 9am.
#jetlagconquered? Our first stop: Tokyo Station to store our mounds
of luggage...which is a very pretty place:
Inside:
Outside:
Our first destination was the Emperor's
palace, where he actually lives. Again, we moved at a relatively
leisurely pace...little did we know about our later issues.
One of many moats:
Fountains:
Grody swans:
Start of the struggs:
Since the emperor's palace is still a
real functioning thing, aka someone royal lives there, tourists are
not allowed to enter. Really the idea is to enjoy the picturesque
bridge palace combo. At one point, we could turn left or right...we
picked the right...so little did we know that the left, would in fact
take us directly to this famous scene, while the right involved
circling inside the imperial gardens. Circling because the entire
freaking thing is surrounded by a freaking moat, meaning that there
are only a limited number of entrances...
The imperial gardens were nice though:
Path:
Donjon something:
#likeaboss
The theatre
City scene:
Some structure in the garden
Viewing tower for Mt. Fuji (closed to
the public)
Here we tried to find the royal
residence, before realizing that we had to walk ALL THE WAY
BACK...I'm still sort of bitter, can you tell?
City scene
Better view of the viewing tower:
The freaking bridge and residence:
SELFIE: (a bit tired and *faced here)
At this point, we are an hour behind
schedule to visit Asakusa (aSAkusa), which my family friends actually
told us was really cool...Asakusa is apparently an extremely
traditional Japanese area with little booths, and a giant, recently
restored temple. Kappabashi street is also in the area, where
Japanese restaurants buy kitchen and select food supplies. In
addition, the area is known for its abundance of plastic food (which
all restaurants need for their window displays), which is something
unique to the Japanese.
Cool model of Tokyo in the tourism
office:
\
Entrance gate to Asakusa
Shopping!
Red bean filled thingys that were
delicious and piping hot (the machine that makes them, at least):
Mochi on a stick:
Temple:
Pagoda:
Geisha taking pictures with tourists, probably on her way somewhere...it was really sad when she ran into a tour group...
More Asakusa:
In the temple: Photography is actually not allowed in most, if not all, temples
In the temple we had the choice of
receiving a fortune. This was done by “politely” shaking a
hexagonal cylinder filled with numbered chopsticks with a tiny hole
on one end. The idea, then is to open the numbered drawer, which
contains the fortune.
I went first, and ignoring the
“politely” aspect, jostled the canister up and down like a
madwomen, drawing 41. Unfortunately, drawer 41 contained the “Final
and last fortune. Amanda, of course, gently shook the canister,
receiving the normal fortune. You can compare our fortunes below,
which, unfortunately for me and fortunately for Amanda, are exactly
opposite. Since I am technically challenged and can't figure out how to rotate the damn image, I will give you some of the highlights and lowlights:
Regular fortune: (aka Amanda's)
Your request will be granted. The patient get well soon. The lost article will be found. The person you wait for will come. Building a new house and removal are both good. It is good to start a trip. Marriage of any kind and employment are both well.
The final and last fortune: (aka Emilly's)
Your request will not be granted. The patient will take a long time to cure. The lost article will not be found. You have to wait a long time, until you meet a person you wait for. Stop building a house and removal. Stop starting a trip (OOPS). Stop any kind marriage and new employment (UHHH...)
In fact, I decided to open the
following 15 drawers, finding small fortune, bad fortune, and some
good some bad fortune, none of which were as good as the regular or
as bad as the last and final. Thank goodness I'm traveling with her.
In the temple
The real old shrine in the area. Here we learned from an American tour group that every time one enters under the Shinto gate, one's soul is cleansed. In addition, one must wash one's hands and mouth (stations for this are at each temple). When praying, you bow to show respect, clap our hands twice to get the deities' attentions as they are prone to "play" all day. Make your wish, then finish with some more bowing. Oh the things learned when stalking English-speaking tour groups in a foreign country.
Kids these days...
I really liked this shrine of a lady in such a male dominated world even though I have no idea what it means or who it is...
After visiting Asakusa and the temple, Amanda and I wandered towards Kappabashi St, where we saw this aka rando women posing with these costumed men, who couldn't tell me what they did #lauguagebarrier
Amanda was a bit sketched out...
KAPPABASHI aka SOME PLASTIC FOOD...aka I be excited
Is it real? Can I eat it? You'll never know....*cackle* (and yes, I recognize that I just told you this was plastic...forgive me for trying to be dramatic in a blog.
SUSHI!
Tempura tower:
My favorite shop: so much wood!
This is pretty obviously fake :(
Chair shop
Super cute Kappa. So apparently Kappa are actually a monster that eat people by doing something I don't remember...Amanda knows...and they are all over Kappabashi street (which makes sense)
Tokyo tower
There are sluttier looking Kappa, but this was the only picture I had
Cool temple on our way back to the subway
The dinner of the guy sitting next to me on the train
Emilly's Dinner
I was expressly told to eat this within the hour, but was unable to start until after the most stressful 30 min outlined earlier...time will tell if I develop any stomach issues
Do not put your Shinkasen line ticket into the train/subway machine: this will happen (although apparently, it happens quite often). The Shinkasen is a high speed rail line in Japan..aka Kyoto to Tokyo is only 2hr 18min
