Kaminari-mon, or "Thunder Gate", in Asakusa.
Wow, this whole being forced to roam Tokyo for 7 hours a day thing is really exhausting…but also rewarding (I guess… *grumble*). And the weather today was abysmal. It was rainy and cold. If it had been just a few degrees colder, it would have been snowing. As it was, I could see my breath and the rain was so bad I had to buy an overpriced umbrella. Thus, I think I deserve a nice hot shower, some food, and another early (7 pm-ish probably) bedtime.
This morning I again got up as late as possible (10 am), and then decided to see what other wonders my Tokyo Metropolitan Government-sponsored free guidebook held. So I decided to go to Ota, which supposedly holds a temple, some museums, and an aquarium. You may notice that my summary for today doesn’t include Ota. That is because I gave up after walking for half an hour in every imaginable direction from the subway station. Then I figured hey, it’s an Asian city. There’s probably a ton of temples and museums that are much more easy to find! So I decided to go back to the area near my hostel, called Asakusa [浅草] (my hostel being located by Asakusabashi [浅草橋].
My Tokyo-provided guidebook describes Asakusa in glowing terms (surprise!): “Time has stopped here since the Edo period, which is reflected by the numerous stores in Asakusa (because stores always reflect time stopping, right?). Take a walk and you can step back in time.” There is a famous temple here, called Sensoji Temple [浅草寺]. For those of you out there who are particularly astute, or good at paying attention, you may notice that in Japanese, these identical characters are often pronounced in multiple ways. This is one of the reasons I hate the language. Also, they stole all of those characters from China. Anyway, Sensoji temple is supposedly the oldest temple in Tokyo, built 1400 years ago. In front of the temple is a long street, called Nakamise [仲見世], filled with lots of shops, and a large gate called Kaminari-mon [雷門], or “thunder gate”.
While at Kaminari-mon, I found a surprising number of Chinese tourists, in fact I helped one Chinese family take a photo. I’m not sure why I saw so many more Chinese people than yesterday, perhaps they find old-style temples to be more interesting and relevant to their own cultural experience. As with yesterday, there were many white tourists too. I got several pictures, bought my baby brother a Totoro stuffed animal (he had requested a “soft animal” from Tokyo, so I hope this will suffice), and discovered that the Tokyo subway has a day pass. I bought one, and then proceeded to abuse the system, riding it as many times as possible so as to get my money’s worth (I enjoy subway rides anyway!).
Flipping through the guidebook, I decided to visit Akihabara [秋葉原], specifically the small sub-region of Ochanomizu [御茶ノ水]. It is a “bustling street with specialty shops of electric appliances and pop culture.” I’m beginning to notice a trend with this guidebook… almost every single part of Tokyo seems to be bustling, modern, and stylish. Except, notably, Asakusa. It was here that I ate lunch, at a “Chinese cooking” place. I had something they called “Shanghai noodles,” which was basically a slightly fresher and better version of 35 Chinese’s lo-mein.
After lunch I went to Nikolai Church, an Orthodox Christian church with interesting Russian-style architecture. I didn’t go in because it looked deserted and I’m probably going to hell anyway, so I didn’t want to invite misfortune upon Tokyo…or myself. Then I went to Yushima Tenmangu Shrine, a shrine to the sky god. Next was Yushima Seido, a Chinese-inspired Confucian hall, which was … deserted. I guess most people have better things to do than go sightseeing on a rainy and cold Monday morning. But they probably don’t live in hostels that kick them out at 10 am. Next was Kanda Myojin, an ancient shrine that is supposed to bring luck, a spouse, and business, that is, everything important in traditional Japanese society.
I was exhausted from all this walking and picture taking, and my camera was beginning to do that thing it does, where it says it has full battery but then suddenly the battery dies. So I abused my day pass on the metro some more, until 5:00, and then came back to the hostel to crash again. An Australian joined our room. Not so attractive. But friendly, and has a cool accent!
Impressions: the Tokyo metro and subway system is amazing. It is absolutely huge, incredibly convenient, and relatively inexpensive (at least compared to other big cities like New York). My day pass was 1,000 yen ($10), and a single ride is usually around 200 yen ($2). Trains come so often that you rarely have to wait more than 2 minutes. Some of the trains even sing to you at each stop (by that I mean they play tunes as the doors close and as they start up). In short, I love them.
Anyway, it is shower and food time, then I am crashing.
-February 15, 6:05 PM
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