A Walk Up to Asakusa

Foot of a Guardian, a photo by dtk_guy on Flickr.

Feb 19, 2012

The chronicle of the day is straight forward; we were met at the hotel by my mom's friend and family (husband and son). We didn't have any plans laid out ahead of time so we just headed off and walked in the general direction of Asakusa.

One neighbourhood we passed through was Kappabashi (literally "Water Imp Bridge"). The area was well represented by stores aimed at serving restaurants and households. The most interesting of course being the stores which sell the ubiquitous models of food seen in the fronts of restaurants all over Japan. I picked up a very nice bread knife for ¥2300. There was a cheaper one for ¥1600 but I didn't see it until after I had paid. Nonetheless I'm happy with my purchase.

Lunch was had at a restaurant which was part cafeteria and part made to order. It was reasonable, the selection of dishes was quite large and the tamagoyaki were fresh made and very tasty.

After that we made our final approach to Sensoji. Along the way we passed theatres which I believe are dedicated to manzai or rakugo acts. Or perhaps not. Perhaps they specialize in comedy and variety acts such as those celebrated in the movie "Warai no Daigaku" (The University of Laughter). All in all it's not the type of theatre one sees in other parts of Japan, let alone Tokyo.

The other entertainment flashback we encountered was a kamishibai story teller. This is the type of show where a person sets up a box made to look like a stage and they tell a tale while flashing paintings or drawings held in the box. Once again this is a form of entertainment rarely seen elsewhere nowadays.

After parting ways with my mom's friend we took a rest and then made our way out to Ebisu. My mom hasn't been there before so I thought it would be a nice place to visit. As my luck would have it not all the buildings and shops there were open. So there really weren't any places to get a bite to eat. To add insult to injury the Ebisu Beer Museum and the pub were closed.

All in all this was a good day. Being able to see a face of Tokyo which I hadn't seen in previous visits was a good thing. It demonstrated once again how this giant metropolis can pleasantly surprise you no matter how many times you visit it....