Exploring Asakusa
I woke up this morning at 6:00 am. Given that the capsule was pitch black it was impossible to know whether it was day or night. I had the horrible suspicion that it was only midnight or 1:00 in the morning and I had slept only a few hours. But no, I slept like 10 hours solid. It was great. The futon in the capsule bed is a little thin, but overall it was not so bad.
Today I decided that I was going to explore the neighborhood of Asakusa, which is where I'm staying. I had read in the guide book that one of the biggest and oldest temples was in this neighborhood so I was really looking forward to seeing that. I headed out around 8:00 a.m. I knew that was early, but I figured why not.
First stop was 7-11. I needed something to get me going, so I popped in there and blundered my way through figuring out what was on the hot bar and got myself and apple tea. I was able to figure out what the buns in the hot bar were. One was beef bun: 肉まん = nikuman, and one was bean bun: あんまん = anman. I bought the nikuman. I figured I could always get a sweet bean bun and there was no rush.
From there I crossed over the Azumabashi bridge, which is bright red, and headed to the other half of Asakusa.
As the travel guide I got at the airport says, Asakusa is a remnant of the Edo period Japan, when streets were narrow and loaded with tiny shops selling all kinds of wonderful things. However, since I got there at like 8:00 in the morning nothing was open yet. So there was this beautiful little street with all these fake branches of cherry blossoms branching out over the shop stalls.
Given that next to nothing was open, this gave me lots of time to explore the temple grounds in depth. And wow, there was a lot of it.
The temple complex I went to was Senso-Ji. Senso-Ji was built when a few fisherman found a statue of Kannon, a bodhisattva also known as Avalokiteshvara, while trawling with a net in the Sumidagawa River, which runs through Asakusa. The temple was erected to house this statue, and a series of other gates and buildings were erected on the temple grounds.
Now, Senso-Ji is Buddhist, but it was not the first temple on this site. There is also the Asakusa Jinja, which is a Shinto temple that was erected to honor the founders of the temple to Kannon. However, the massive temple to Kannon completely overshadows the tiny little Asakusa Jinja.
Surrounding the temple grounds are a series of gates. Some are fairly simple like the Nitenmon gate. Others, like the Hozomon Gate are incredibly elaborate. The Hozomon Gate houses two extremely large guardian spirit statues. One has an opened mouth and one has a closed mouth. I don't know what differences that implies, but they were certainly a little frightening. The Hozomon Gate is also where they house the sacred texts. Though, those were not visible.
Inside the Main Hall priests are praying behind a screen day and night. In front of the main altar there is a slot where you throw a coin and offer a prayer to Kannon. There are also small candle holders where you can light a candle for someone as well. Another one of the many many offerings at the Main Hall are the fortune boxes. There are these hexagonal bins filled with stick that have a number on them. You drop your 100 Yen coin and politely shake the stick bin and a stick will fall from the hole. The number on the stick corresponds to a drawer that has a fortune in it. I drew fortune 96: BEST FORTUNE! It was really quite nice.
After that I took a look at the little Asakusa Jinja. There wasn't much going on there, but it was cute. By that point it was about 9:00 a.m. I discovered that the Demboin Gardens were actually going to be opened to the public, which is a new development. Even the Lonely Planet guide said that the garden is never open, so I figured that I would go and see what people have been missing. As I started to walk through the garden one of the groundskeepers came up and was saying that I had to leave. Apparently, they didn't open til 10:00 a.m.
So, with an hour to kill I figured I'd go wander around the shopping area. But that was still closed as well... So I said fuck it and went to Starbucks. Thankfully Caffe Latte is just transliterated into Katakana, so it wasn't difficult. Though it was unclear to me if Soy milk was an option, so I just got the regular milk latte. I know I've been saying I'm going to get the Sakura latte, but I'll get around to it. So I spent the morning writing up my trip. By the time I was finished it was about 9:50.
I packed up my netbook and headed back to Senso-Ji.
The Demboin Garden is through and behind the Five Storied Pagoda. You pay 300 Yen to get into this little museum of Buddhist artifacts and Edo period artworks, and then go into the Garden. It was very beautiful. The entire garden rings around a koi pond that has multiple little bridges and little stone walkways through the water. There are flowering dogwood trees that gracefully bow toward the water. There is also a little stop as you go through where there is a traditional Japanese Tea House, and there were gentlemen in there brewing tea for all the guests who came through. Demboin is the home of the head priest of the temple, and is generally off limits.
The last little temple that I went to at the Senso-Ji complex was Chingo-Do. Chingo-Do is a temple to Otanuki-Sama a Tanuki spirit who was reeking havoc at the Temple to Kannon. So they erected a temple to appease the spirit, and people come to pray to Otanuki-Sama there.
Now, all these temple grounds are busy. People were coming and stopping in here on their way to work. They were praying, getting fortunes, going to specific shrines and honoring these different spirits. I saw one woman washing a statue of Buddha and then just walk on. It's a very integrated way of life.
Once I had wrapped up all the different temples of Senso-Ji I began wandering the market of the Kaminarimon. This shopping complex takes up blocks upon blocks and they are all tiny little alley ways where each individual stall is something like 4 feet wide and 6 foot deep. These are not large shops. So there are literally hundreds of shops. Most all of it is touristy kitsch stuff. Key chains with hello kitty, bags with Hokusai prints, ganbatte headbands, chopsticks, coin purses. But some of the shops are midrange and some are upscale. It just really is all smashed together, so you will never know until you've gone through it all. I did buy a coin purse, because believe me, in Japan you need one. And I got one gift, and may have found a second gift. But I had to think about it so I'm holding off right now.
Somewhere along the line I got all turned around and wound up wandering down an alley littered with Pachinko parlors. Pachinko is like a slot machine game, and you can hear all the jingling and lights and flashing as you walk around. I had absolutely no interest in gambling away what little money I actually had so I just kept walking. However, I totally got distracted by these standees in front of one of the Pachinko places "Entrer" I believe it was called. The male one was so unbelievable I had to take a picture of it. It had that very Japanese combo of sexy and wrong that just made it all worthwhile. I mean, look at it! It has that bodybuilder body and that anime face. It's just so disconcerting.
I spent like three hours wandering the shops and spent next to nothing, thankfully, so I popped into the AM/PM and grabbed some stuff for a quick lunch. I was a little more adventurous. I grabbed a calpis (which I've had before), a box of some kind of meat and a Crunky bar. Now, the meat was not going to be something completely unheard of. It was probably going to be beef, chicken or pork. There was just so much writing all over the box that I just couldn't pick out what it was. Turned out it was chicken. As for Crunky, I couldn't resist. I mean, every time I looked at it I heard "if you wanna get crunked get up!" The Crunky bar is a chocolate bar with tiny crispies of malted milk in it. So it's kind of like a bar version of Whoppers. It also had a kind of dark bitterness to it that was interesting.
I ate my lunch bag on the banks of the Sumidagawa River watching the barges go up and down. There's a nice little park there, and they had the big pink banners up for Sakura Matsuri, the Cherry Blossom Festival. But I've been told that Cherry Blossom Festivals have been cancelled as well. This makes me ultra sad. However, Cherry Blossoms themselves will still bloom, regardless of earthquakes or radiation so I plan on engaging in some Hanami sometime over the next few days.
One last thing, I have to talk about face masks. It's really sinking in. One of the things that I just wasn't prepared to see was the huge numbers of people wearing hospital masks just walking around town. Seriously, it's like a third of the population wears them constantly. I know that part of it is the radiation scare, but this number of people is normal, because Japan is a very germophobic country. It's a little disconcerting honestly. But I'm starting to get used to it.
Today I decided that I was going to explore the neighborhood of Asakusa, which is where I'm staying. I had read in the guide book that one of the biggest and oldest temples was in this neighborhood so I was really looking forward to seeing that. I headed out around 8:00 a.m. I knew that was early, but I figured why not.
First stop was 7-11. I needed something to get me going, so I popped in there and blundered my way through figuring out what was on the hot bar and got myself and apple tea. I was able to figure out what the buns in the hot bar were. One was beef bun: 肉まん = nikuman, and one was bean bun: あんまん = anman. I bought the nikuman. I figured I could always get a sweet bean bun and there was no rush.
From there I crossed over the Azumabashi bridge, which is bright red, and headed to the other half of Asakusa.
As the travel guide I got at the airport says, Asakusa is a remnant of the Edo period Japan, when streets were narrow and loaded with tiny shops selling all kinds of wonderful things. However, since I got there at like 8:00 in the morning nothing was open yet. So there was this beautiful little street with all these fake branches of cherry blossoms branching out over the shop stalls.
Given that next to nothing was open, this gave me lots of time to explore the temple grounds in depth. And wow, there was a lot of it.
The temple complex I went to was Senso-Ji. Senso-Ji was built when a few fisherman found a statue of Kannon, a bodhisattva also known as Avalokiteshvara, while trawling with a net in the Sumidagawa River, which runs through Asakusa. The temple was erected to house this statue, and a series of other gates and buildings were erected on the temple grounds.
Now, Senso-Ji is Buddhist, but it was not the first temple on this site. There is also the Asakusa Jinja, which is a Shinto temple that was erected to honor the founders of the temple to Kannon. However, the massive temple to Kannon completely overshadows the tiny little Asakusa Jinja.
Surrounding the temple grounds are a series of gates. Some are fairly simple like the Nitenmon gate. Others, like the Hozomon Gate are incredibly elaborate. The Hozomon Gate houses two extremely large guardian spirit statues. One has an opened mouth and one has a closed mouth. I don't know what differences that implies, but they were certainly a little frightening. The Hozomon Gate is also where they house the sacred texts. Though, those were not visible.
Inside the Main Hall priests are praying behind a screen day and night. In front of the main altar there is a slot where you throw a coin and offer a prayer to Kannon. There are also small candle holders where you can light a candle for someone as well. Another one of the many many offerings at the Main Hall are the fortune boxes. There are these hexagonal bins filled with stick that have a number on them. You drop your 100 Yen coin and politely shake the stick bin and a stick will fall from the hole. The number on the stick corresponds to a drawer that has a fortune in it. I drew fortune 96: BEST FORTUNE! It was really quite nice.
After that I took a look at the little Asakusa Jinja. There wasn't much going on there, but it was cute. By that point it was about 9:00 a.m. I discovered that the Demboin Gardens were actually going to be opened to the public, which is a new development. Even the Lonely Planet guide said that the garden is never open, so I figured that I would go and see what people have been missing. As I started to walk through the garden one of the groundskeepers came up and was saying that I had to leave. Apparently, they didn't open til 10:00 a.m.
So, with an hour to kill I figured I'd go wander around the shopping area. But that was still closed as well... So I said fuck it and went to Starbucks. Thankfully Caffe Latte is just transliterated into Katakana, so it wasn't difficult. Though it was unclear to me if Soy milk was an option, so I just got the regular milk latte. I know I've been saying I'm going to get the Sakura latte, but I'll get around to it. So I spent the morning writing up my trip. By the time I was finished it was about 9:50.
I packed up my netbook and headed back to Senso-Ji.
The Demboin Garden is through and behind the Five Storied Pagoda. You pay 300 Yen to get into this little museum of Buddhist artifacts and Edo period artworks, and then go into the Garden. It was very beautiful. The entire garden rings around a koi pond that has multiple little bridges and little stone walkways through the water. There are flowering dogwood trees that gracefully bow toward the water. There is also a little stop as you go through where there is a traditional Japanese Tea House, and there were gentlemen in there brewing tea for all the guests who came through. Demboin is the home of the head priest of the temple, and is generally off limits.
The last little temple that I went to at the Senso-Ji complex was Chingo-Do. Chingo-Do is a temple to Otanuki-Sama a Tanuki spirit who was reeking havoc at the Temple to Kannon. So they erected a temple to appease the spirit, and people come to pray to Otanuki-Sama there.
Now, all these temple grounds are busy. People were coming and stopping in here on their way to work. They were praying, getting fortunes, going to specific shrines and honoring these different spirits. I saw one woman washing a statue of Buddha and then just walk on. It's a very integrated way of life.
Once I had wrapped up all the different temples of Senso-Ji I began wandering the market of the Kaminarimon. This shopping complex takes up blocks upon blocks and they are all tiny little alley ways where each individual stall is something like 4 feet wide and 6 foot deep. These are not large shops. So there are literally hundreds of shops. Most all of it is touristy kitsch stuff. Key chains with hello kitty, bags with Hokusai prints, ganbatte headbands, chopsticks, coin purses. But some of the shops are midrange and some are upscale. It just really is all smashed together, so you will never know until you've gone through it all. I did buy a coin purse, because believe me, in Japan you need one. And I got one gift, and may have found a second gift. But I had to think about it so I'm holding off right now.
Somewhere along the line I got all turned around and wound up wandering down an alley littered with Pachinko parlors. Pachinko is like a slot machine game, and you can hear all the jingling and lights and flashing as you walk around. I had absolutely no interest in gambling away what little money I actually had so I just kept walking. However, I totally got distracted by these standees in front of one of the Pachinko places "Entrer" I believe it was called. The male one was so unbelievable I had to take a picture of it. It had that very Japanese combo of sexy and wrong that just made it all worthwhile. I mean, look at it! It has that bodybuilder body and that anime face. It's just so disconcerting.
I spent like three hours wandering the shops and spent next to nothing, thankfully, so I popped into the AM/PM and grabbed some stuff for a quick lunch. I was a little more adventurous. I grabbed a calpis (which I've had before), a box of some kind of meat and a Crunky bar. Now, the meat was not going to be something completely unheard of. It was probably going to be beef, chicken or pork. There was just so much writing all over the box that I just couldn't pick out what it was. Turned out it was chicken. As for Crunky, I couldn't resist. I mean, every time I looked at it I heard "if you wanna get crunked get up!" The Crunky bar is a chocolate bar with tiny crispies of malted milk in it. So it's kind of like a bar version of Whoppers. It also had a kind of dark bitterness to it that was interesting.
I ate my lunch bag on the banks of the Sumidagawa River watching the barges go up and down. There's a nice little park there, and they had the big pink banners up for Sakura Matsuri, the Cherry Blossom Festival. But I've been told that Cherry Blossom Festivals have been cancelled as well. This makes me ultra sad. However, Cherry Blossoms themselves will still bloom, regardless of earthquakes or radiation so I plan on engaging in some Hanami sometime over the next few days.
One last thing, I have to talk about face masks. It's really sinking in. One of the things that I just wasn't prepared to see was the huge numbers of people wearing hospital masks just walking around town. Seriously, it's like a third of the population wears them constantly. I know that part of it is the radiation scare, but this number of people is normal, because Japan is a very germophobic country. It's a little disconcerting honestly. But I'm starting to get used to it.