Amoungst the Masses

Weekend #2 in Japan was a sunny and warm two days and I along with what seemed like the rest of Tokyo went outside and explored.

I took the long train ride from Yokohama up to the northeast of Tokyo to a neighborhood called Asakusa. Located here was another shrine area which seemed promising. I arrived at the front Kaminari-mon, a huge gate with a large red lantern. What I didn't expect was the sheer mass of people who were also there visiting. Inside the gate, there was this gauntlet-like street lined with touristy trinkets and other bizarre wares for sale. It seemed a little strange to have so much commercialism leading up to a religious temple, especially after the beautiful sereneness of the Meiji Shrine I visited last weekend.

Once in the inner courtyard, the rituals started.... First you went to one sport were there were small drawers and a silver canister. You shook the canister until a long thin stick popped out. On that stick was something written in Japanese. You matched the writing on the stick to a specific drawer and took out the piece of paper inside. I only briefly read my slip of paper, but it struck me no different than a horoscope fortune in the morning newspaper. After reading the fortune, you rolled it up and tied it to a bar... that is assuming you want your fortune to come true. New to this temple was the incense pot. One would take a rolled up tube of some sorts and turn it into a pot to get it smoldering. Then you took the tube over to a large cauldron where you put the tube in and then stand there waving the smoke at you. Apparently this is a ritual folks use for health. Those that are ailing do this for good health. Not sure how sucking in a bunch of incense fumes helps your health?!The Temple itself was a lot smaller than the Meiji shrine from last weekend with about 3 times more people. I am not sure how you find peace and spirituality with throwing a few coins in a box and praying for a minute or two, but I guess these folks would probably look at our US religious customs just as strangely.

Since the area just outside of the Temple seemed more like a large festival than a religious venue, it was pretty easy to find some good street food. That means Yakatori or small skewers of grilled meat and a soda. I lucked out and found a Yakatori stand with English menus and sat down in the tent and ordered myself a few chicken skewers. Delicious! After eating, I wandered around the nearby neighborhoods seeing life outside of the tourist traps. I liked this wandering so much better than the touristy areas. To me, this is the real Tokyo. without the swarming masses and crappy trinkets for sale. I made it as far as Kappabashi-dori, the street where they sell the plastic food dishes used at most restaurants in town. They are amazingly good recreations and also incredibly expensive.

After wandering, I headed for the Sumida River and a long river cruise down the river towards downtown Tokyo. I thought it might be nice to see a bit of Tokyo from somewhere other than a rail or subway station. The boat was crowded on a sunny Saturday, but I managed to find a seat near an open window. Unfortunately, a group of folks who insisted on feeding the nearby seagulls were also near me and for about half the cruise, you couldn't take a single photo due to the 30 or so seagulls flying y my window looking for a free handout. What made it worse was the touristas all taking photos of the gulls. Idiots! I hope they enjoy looking through their 100 photos they took of Seagulls while in Japan. Guh!

Once we got rid of the gulls the boat ride was nice, but nothing special, until the boat docked at our departing station, the beautiful Hama-Rikyu Gardens. Not major bloom-age of cherry blossoms yet (that comes in one week), but the plum trees had bloomed and there was a field full of yellow flowers. It was a nice walk through the gardens and a nice way to end a hectic day full of touristy kitsch and a ton of my fellow Tokyo-ians.

Sunday will have to be another post.....

PS: More photos can be found at my Smugmug site.