An eventful day ahead. We first went to House Ikebukuro, to leave balex's 25kg rock(aka luggage) with the hostel, saving the trouble of lugging it around japan.We then went to exchange our Japan Railway Pass, the 'must-get' for anyone who intends to travel outside Tokyo. It comes at a hefty price though, S$350 for a 7-day pass. It's like the concession pass over here in Singapore, with unlimited rides on all JR transportation services, i.e. ferry, buses, trains, except that we get to experience travelling speeds of more than 200km/h(sounds like F1 huh?).We made reservations for all our 7 days transport too, which took quite some time. The counter staff was probably amazed by our detailed plan for the 7 days. By the time we finished our administrative matters, it was already time for lunch(thus saving money on the breakfast :P). With the recommendation from the travel guide my sis bought for me, we came to this soba specialty shop located in Ueno.
It was my first time eating such 'traditional' soba, with so many ingredients as compared to the ones i've had in Singapore. The wasabi shown in the picture below, was said to be the authentic, hand-grinded wasabi. Balex pointed out that the presence of 'fibres' in the wasabi, made it so different from the wasabi paste that was usually used in other stores.
By the way, I'm not a gourmet, but according to balex, the soba from this shop was probably one of the BEST foods we'd taken in Japan. After lunch, we added an impromptu program to our itinerary - Tour of University of Tokyo. It was shown in the map of the Ueno Park area, n we thought it was nearby. But we walked a long long way before we stumbled upon the university. This is the supposedly-famous Yasuda Auditorium of the University. 
On the day that we went, there weren't many students along the pavements, which I assumed.. it's their semester break too. We spent quite some time exploring the campus, looking for that all important 'bookstore', thinking that we could find perhaps a jacket, or souvenir(like the ones NUS are selling) to bring back home. Unfortunately, the bookstore was really a bookstore, with no stationery/clothes related to Tokyo Uni that we could 'pledge our loyalty to', which meant a wasted trip. We went around the campus to look for a 'grand entrance' of the Uni, but again, there's no such sign. This was the closest that we could find:
Being a tennis-siao person, tennis courts were the next i was looking for. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the only tennis court I saw in Tokyo University. No one plays tennis in Tokyo Uni?
After that, we took a bus(our first time taking a bus in Japan) back to Ueno train station, for our next destination, Asakusa(浅草). Came across this interesting torii gate at Asakusa, which sprung up from nowhere, among all the urban buildings. 
After yet another long walk, we finally reached Sensoji, one of the most famous temples I know of. No worries, although u might not recognise this temple, i'm sure u'll recognise the lantern i'll be showing u later. 
We first went to the information centre to get brochures that we thought would be useful in touring the temple, and this was a unique clock we saw outside the information centre.
As the clock struck 4, the clock was suddenly lifted up and behind the clock was actually cute replicas of the festival that we'll be looking at later that day.(actually, the 'real parade' was already over by 2pm.)
Erm, do u recognise this lantern? it wasn't 'inflated' that day, to facilitate the festival processions, but the lantern read '雷門'Does it ring a bell to u? This is by the way, the Kaminarimon Gate.
We had some snacks along the way, to make up for the bfast we missed in the morning.
The path leading to the Sensoji Temple was full of stalls, selling all types of Japanese goodies, and plenty of souvenirs too. But as this was only the 3rd day, thinking that I 'might' come across other souvenirs too, I controlled my spending n bought.. minimal souvenirs.
Ah..this is a Mikoshi, otherwise known as portable shrines, which the religious followers will carry later on in a clip i've uploaded.
This was a shop/store/place(whatever u call it), where the followers helped each other to dress up for the parade
Street full of followers clad in their religious costumes..
After fighting off the strong temptation to buy the souvenirs, we finally arrived at the inner gates of Sensoji Temple.
The Sensoji temple, dedicated to bodhisattva Kannon(also known as Guan Yin)
A pagoda by the side of the temple, one of the many we came across for this trip..
This is the main entrance of the Sensoji Temple, but was probably closed when we arrived, coz we took too much time looking at the souvenirs..
Another classic scene which i seemed to see them on tv
Ok, finally something very 'interesting' for the day. As told by my frd, xin, before i flew off to Japan, japanese gals are very friendly people, and would be more than happy to take pictures with us. So, we came across these 2 kimono clad gals.. who were coincidentally, quite pretty. We came across them once, twice.. n i was telling myself, if i saw them for the 3rd time again, i would ask to take pictures with them. Indeed, we saw them the 3rd time, n I approached them ;)
As we continued to walk in the vicinity, we came across these parades.. which i suppose were part of the Sanja Matsuri. Sanja Matsuri is regarded as one of the grandest festivals in Tokyo, and we had planned to catch it long ago. It's a 3 day event, but unfortunately, as we would be leaving for Hiroshima on the following day, this was the best we could get already. Matsuri by the way, means 'festival'. I didn't memorise it for my japanese class, but now it's firmly etched in my head.
the followers lifting the Mikoshi..
Here's a sample of Meibutsu-Daigyoretsu (Festival Music) that i've recorded when they were lifting the Mikoshi:It was time for dinner, n this shop looked very inviting.. Whale meat.. Oops..
Afterall, one of our objectives for this trip was to try the different cuisines, so we went into the shop. This is whale sashimi..
And another 2 types of cooking..the fried one, and the grilled one.
Hard to imagine that i was eating an animal many times larger than me. Heard that whales are killed cruelly. This was perhaps the first n last time i was eating it..
After dinner, we went back to the main gate to take more pictures.. 
We managed to catch another glimpse of the followers lifting the Mikoshi.. I wondered if they were the same group of ppl.. Everyone was cheering them on, so it was a very heart-warming moment. A short clip on what the religious followers will do for the following day (probably a warm up for the event):We then went to Asahi Beer tower, located in Asakusa too. It's one of the very 'interesting' and artistic architectures in Tokyo.
Despite having travelled a lot for that day already, the night didn't end just like that. We went back to Shinjuku(our hotel was in Shinjuku) to do more window shopping. Having 'filled' my camera with lots of pictures n videos that day, I bought a memory card from Yodobashi Camera, one of the most famous electrical appliance chain stores in Japan. Was so tempted to buy the gaming consoles too, e.g Wii, PSP, Nitendo DS.. but my self-discipline was strong enough ;)
1 comment:
the dinner was good; service, environment and of course the food, especially the fried one. I din know that fried meat can taste so delicate.
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