~*SilverWeek in Tokyo*~ PART 2 ~ 日曜日（Nichiyoubi - Sunday)

Konbanwa Minna~san,

And here is Part 2 of my lovely Tokyo Trip…

日曜日(Sunday)

Sunday was the day to go to Asakusa.  We “slept in”, ate our shoe cream, and headed out to meet Nanae at Asakusa for lunch.  Asakusa is one of the more traditional areas of Tokyo and the famous Senso-ji Temple which is apparently Tokyo’s most sacred and spectacular Buddhist temple.  Also the famous Kaminarimon Gate or “Thunder Gate” and Hozo-mon Gate with Nakamise-dori in between is a highlight of Asakusa.  We were fortunate to be with the massive crowd of people this day.

Before we went sightseeing in Asakusa Nanae, Asuka, Mara and I went to a little restaurant and had monjyayaki which is the Tokyo version of Osaka’s okonomiyaki  and both equal deliciousness.  Here we stuffed ourselves (or at least I did) with monjyayaki , okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and more monjyayaki.  We made our own food with the grill/skillet thingy between us all.  So fun. 

We ventured out to see Senso-ji and the Kaminarimon Gate under the hot sun.  It was pretty sweet.  As we entered the Kaminarimon Gate we journeyed down Nakamise-dori lined with hundreds of shops selling everything from kimono to Sazae~san custard filled breads (which I bought for my host family) to inappropriate things....  It was interesting nevertheless.  As we reached the end near Hozo-mon Gate, the entrance to Senso-ji Temple greeted us.  Well….it’s more like we greeted it, but you get the picture. 

Walking up to the actual temple one passes the famous joukoro or Incense Burner where people waft the smoke bellowing from the burner over themselves believing that the smoke will keep them healthy.  You better believe I wafted that smoke over my head… It smelled great! 

Unfortunately we realized that the whole Senso-ji Temple was covered up.  It is under construction.  Boo…. But we still went inside and threw our go-en (5 yen coins) into a sacred money keeper thing and gazed upon the inside of the temple where the original Kannon image is kept.  It was beautiful.  All of us paid 100 yen (about $1) to shake a can, pull a numbered stick out, and find our numbered fortunes.  Ironically and quite creepily Mara and I received the same good fortune.  Like exactly the same.  Number 23.  Both Asuka and Nanae sadly received bad fortunes so they had to tie them up on a pole so they can put their bad fortunes to rest.  I also saw some Shinto ema and omamori which confused the heck out of me since this place was Buddhist.  And now as I gaze at my handy-dandy Eyewitness Guidebook, I see that right next to Senso-ji Temple is Asakusa Jinja.  I really wished I knew that when I was there….I would have been able to capture the torii  of Asakusa Jinja on film for my Shinto class field report too.  Darn it.  Oh well….  Oh if I forgot to mention, I am writing my field report for Shinto on analysis of Shinto shrines’ torii…for some reason they fascinate me.  I will take photos of the front of the torii and examine what is on them, what they look like, what is around them and compare and contrast them.  It should be fun and exciting!  Also, this project gets me out and exploring Japan which is why I am here!

I want to visit the Great Torii at Miyajima Island next.  It is a huge torii in the middle of the water serving as the entrance to Itsukushima Shrine.  I am not leaving Japan without going there. 

Sorry...sidetracked...anywho- After spending some time at the temple we headed out to a street where Mara and I indulged ourselves with chocolate covered-sprinkled bananas.  Amazing.  Hehe  A bit further down we ran into a street with a bunch of cosplayers on it.  It looked like there was some type of convention going on and they were pretty cool.  For those of you who do not know what cosplayers are they are people who dress up elaborately as characters from anime or manga  or popular music groups.  They are pretty awesome- madstyle props go out to them.  I wanna be like youuuuuuuuu……for Halloween.  J 

After eating our choco-bananas we without delay found a sophisticated Japanese dessert café.  My LYFE is like WOAHHHH with food.  SHOUT OUT TO E MEYERS! WAAAwAAAA.  I had a green tea ice cream sundae with some type of red bean jelly thing in it that was interesting…  not as sweet as I wanted it, but still great.  And can you guess where we went to after dessert?  TO DINNER.

All of us went to Shinjuku to meet Asuka and Nanae’s friend Chie so we could go to dinner at either a “Scary” restaurant or an “Arabian Nights” restaurant.  These were both themed and we tried getting into the kowaii (scary) one, but it was too long of a wait.  The Arabian Nights restaurant was more of my taste because I am a wimp when it comes to people popping out at me when I eat my food….or just in general.  SHOUT OUT TO GRANDMA for me inheriting your nerves! 

This Arabian Nights restaurant was all decked out with desert stuff and the waitresses were all costumed up and the waiters dressed like some kind of genie.  I guess there was an actual blue genie that was supposed to come and sing happy birthday to customers but none of us had a birthday.  Boo.




We ordered a ton of Japanified Arabian food that was delicious and one of our dishes was brought out by a waiter with his dreads (SHOUT OUT TO JOON…get it?  Because of the dreads) up in a blue headdress.  As he started cooking our meat he immediately started wailing at the top of his lungs in English “AHHHHHHHH I’M ON FIIIIIIIAAAAAAAHHHH(fire)  AHHH HELPU MEEEEHHHH I’M AFRAID OF FIIIIIIAHHHH(fire)” and it was absolutely hilarious.  I took out my camera and right away he stopped screaming, smiled, said “PIC-CHAAA(picture)?”, and posed.  I wasn’t able to get a picture of him posing cause I was laughing so hard….I did get one of him cooking though.  Heheh  Too bad people didn’t burst out dancing to Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionarie….I think I would have died right then and there….(I know….Slumdog Millionarie is Indian, and this was Arabian Rock….but still….I wanted to see it).

 This restaurant has made me decide that next Halloween I shall be Jambi from PeeWee’s Playhouse.  That’s right….meccaleccahiiiii meccahyni hooooooe…..  A day in the life….oh, excuse me, lyfe. Heheh.

Stepping outside the restaurant Mara spotted a woman trying to sell panties on a stick….that was hysterical….only in Japan….  We all decided to head back to Ikebukuro for Karoke except for Nanae.  We went to this fabulous Karoke Bar which totally kicked Makino City’s Big Wave Karoke Bar’s butt.  Pretty much Asuka and Chie were in the closet singers and fabulous!!!  So good!  Mara and I started off the night with Bohemian Rhapsody and yes, SHOUT OUT TO DAD since I sang Sukiyaki for the fifth time!  It literally never gets old when you can hit all the Japanese words in a song….I also sang some Ayumi Hamasaki (which was a joke), some Gackt, Asuka and I sang Gekkou by Onitsuka Chihiro and bonded over that, The Little Mermaid’s Part of Your World…..and the night concluded with a grand finale of ANOTHER SHOUT OUT TO EMILY MEYERS – My Heart Will Go On by the wonderful Celine Dion.  It was awesome.  Fo’ sho.  We had a great time.

Exhausted from wrenching our hearts out for 2 hours doing Karoke, we headed back home stopping yet again at 7/11 for our shoe cream~

Jyane~

Ashlee