A Japanese Summer: Chapter Three

Muahahaha... I'm 7 months late in my posting. By the time "A Japanese Summer" finishes, we'll be all set for this year's summer vacation. ^^;; Then again, these are all my memories and there is no deadlines to them. Writing them now brings back the memories and I always misses Japan every single time in write. *sigh*

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Continuing from where we left off with good old Sapporo Beer.

We left Hokkaido the very next morning. That's another 8 long hours back to Tokyo. (-_-) But hey, that does not mean we let the day go wasted. We head off to the famous Sensoji Temple in Asakusa.

Everyone attempts to take a picture under the "Thunder Gate" more accurately known as "Kaminarimon" or the outer gate of the temple.

Everyone including me. (^o^)

Hah! You'll be surprised that this is what greets you right after the gate. A long stretch of little shops selling every souvenir of Japan. This shopping street which spans over 200 meters is called Nakamise. It's interesting that most temple is surrounded by such hustle and bustle. According to dad it's because early community always develop around a temple.

Food: Biscuits, Mochi, Sweets in every colourful packaging you can ever imagine.

In every different shapes and sizes.



Headgears for you to go all Japanish.


You can even get your complete Ninja set with flying daggers and samurai swords here.

You name it! Nakamise has it!

From traditional geishas...

...to Jpop idols' uchiwas. o_O;;
What are those doing there? *blinks*

At the end of Nakamise is the inner gate to Sensoji Temple. This is actually the main gate, the Hozomon.

By then, the sun has begun to set and the skylight was beautiful.

Right behind the Hozomon was the Buddha's giant slipper! HAHAHA... imagine if Buddha-sama didn't clean his feet properly, how greatly the smell would be. *aiks.. disrespectful*
Gomenasai!

Ah... another shot with the crescent moon as backdrop.

One more shot of the lighted pagoda. *click*

By the time we stepped out of the temple and back to the streets the shops were all closed! o__O;; Hayai! But it was beautiful and there was music playing in the background. Old traditional music.

Click play and listen.

Ahahaha.. this shop was closed but we had a strong hunch it's a Comb Shop. *points to the giant comb as the shop's signboard* And what's fascinating about these shops are their gutters. Even upon closing, each shop has beautiful illustrations on its gutters.

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It was dinnertime and we were hungry but we were determined to find that little okonomiyaki shop featured in the Lonely Planet book. It is here we met with the sincerely helpful hospitality of Japan. After giving up wondering around, we stepped into a shop to ask for direction. The man in the shop had no idea of the shop but was so eagered to help us that he went on to take out a map and help us find the place.

Though it turned out we were the ones helping him navigate the map, pointing out to him where his shop was in the map. Ahahaha... we tried so hard to tell him it's okay but he was so determined to help us find the place. (^_^;;) Arigatou Ojichan. I hope your kindness will in return bring you lots of customers to your shop. The fabrics and yukatas there were pretty but they were too expensive for us to buy any.

After walking to where we think the right area of the shop is, we finally got some good reliable directions from a policeman. Hahaha... can't go wrong by asking a man in a uniform. Though he was really intimidating to approach. XD

The little humble shop. FINALLY!

It was REALLY REALLY HOT in there. Even standing at the entrance, we can already feel the heat. Cubbie was having her doubts of going in but come on, after all that effort?

The electrical fan aside, see how authentic the place is. And those white plastic bags? HAHAHA... we were given those upon entering.

Yup, we cooked our own okonomiyaki. That explains the heat of the entire place. Imagine tables of enthusistic guests cooking their okonomiyaki over the flat hot stove in front. And we pay for all that. Hahaha... Why did we pay to suffer?

For the experience lah of course.

For the experience.

=P

And mind you, after all that hassle, my okonomiyaki didn't turned out delicious at all. (-_-)

*bricked*

After our short adventure of the day, we finally called it a day and returned home to YY's place.

Tomorrow... we're out to Kyoto!

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Now Trivia of the Post:
Can you guess what were the plastic bags for?

And Cubbie you are not allowed to answer that!