The third day in Tokyo, and our itinerary included three different shrines and two shopping districts. In front of Ikebukuro station there is this grass sculpture. On a side note, I love how in Tokyo there are always people handing out free tissue (thumbs up). Just before heading out we decided to try out the AYCE breakfast for ¥330 at our hotel (first and last time), not really worth it- just unlimited toast, soup and tea.
Just outside the station, there was a women handing out free tissues (on the packet it says "Don't litter"), a lot of people just passed by her, but not us, we gladly accepted the free tissues with our two hands. WOOHOO! First stop, Yushima Seido.
Metro Marunouchi line from Ikebukuro Station to Ochanomizu Station (11 mins; ¥200) + walking (5minutes?).
OMG. At the background, there's a man hanging from the building...spiderman.
First stop, Yushima Seido. Yushima Seido is a Confucian temple, and also one of the largest. When we arrived here, there were barely anybody here. It's my first time seeing a black temple.
#Yushima Seido
Headed down the stairs and walked along the path to the Statue of Confucius. It was a pain going back up the stairs later.
Giant statue of Confucius. - Hey there man.
Some more wish charms -these are in all the temples.
We headed to Kanda Shrine next cause it was very close to Yushima Seido, but we got lost along the way. We were basically stuck at a highway and didn't know how to cross the street and which direction to go. The sun was blazing hot that day too, so everybody's temper ran a little high. So after a lot of bickering and walking we reached Kanda Shrine. It was one of the prettiest shrine I've ever seen. It looks so magnificent. The shrine was kind of surrounded by tall modern buildings, but regardless, it is quite popular. There's also a small souvenir shop here.
#Kanda Shrine
A little purification fountain. I did it.
If you get a bad fortune, you have to tie it here.
A devotee; there was one woman who was praying at every single shrine in this temple.
I'm not too sure why, but there was a donkey.
Some more of these wishing charms - look at some of these drawings - it's gorgeous! They are so artistic!
We assumed Kanda shrine and Akihabara was close to each other (it was the next station over) so we navigated through the streets with our GPS and arrived at electric town! Yes, electronics everywhere. Anime everywhere. Weird signs everywhere. Akihabara.
#Akihabara
We checked out some anime stores first in search of gundam models, cheap ones.We went into this one manga store and on the ground it says 21+ or something.. it was the hentai section LOL. （⌒▽⌒） SO MANY GUYS THERE. If you have the chance you must visit the hentai section, just for a laugh. Weird stuff.
Mos Burger for lunch. - shrimp burger again
More pictures of buildings in Akihabara. You get to see maids handing out tissues and advertisements.
Gundam Cafe
The next thing on our list was to go to Asakusa so we headed to Akihabara station and once we swiped our card to enter the gate, we couldn't find metro line and when we finally found a sign pointing striaght ahead we attempted to swipe our card again but it didn't work, so it ends up that there's two entrance to Akihabara station and they charge you a fee for walking from one end to the other. MY GOD. CLUELESS. The train officer showed us a sign in English stating the fee. SIGH. BE CAREFUL AT AKIHABARA STATION, know where you are going and go through the right entrance. So from here we took the Hibiya line to Ueno Station and then transferred to the Ginza line to take to Asakusa Tobu Station (14 minutes; ¥170)
After emerging from the subway station to Asakusa, my first thought was "WOW" because it looked so different from all the other areas in Tokyo. We were greeted by red temple-like buildings and the feeling of ancient Japan. There are a lot of tourists, locals and kids on field trips. It's very crowded but also very lively.
You can see Tokyo Skytree and the Asahi beer tower ("flame") on the other side of the Sumida River.
Jinrikisya (the guys that pulls the cart) - a lot of them ask you if you would like a ride (expensive) and eye at tourists, so be careful. But usually these guys are quite young tanned guys wearing short spandex shorts, some of them quite cute.
Just a couple of blocks from the station, we have the Kaminarimon Gate (thunder gate). This is the first gate you pass by before entering the Nakamse Shopping Street and after this there is another gate you need to pass by before heading to the Sensoji temple.
#Kaminarimon Gate - so many tourists here.
Nakamse Shopping Street (9AM - 7PM)
Yes, no photo.
The second and last gate to Senso-ji Temple
#Senso-ji Temple
There's so many pretty looking temples surrounding the Sensoji Temple.
I got my fortune twice, first time it was the exact opposite of the "highest, excellent fortune," it was actually the "lowest, bad fortune." - basically we shake this small container filled with sticks and when one of the sticks fall it will contain a number at the top and you find the corresponding drawer and pull out your fortune. If it is a bad fortune you need to tie it on the rack. We donated ¥100.
The purification fountain.
Yogodo Hall - built to commemorate the monk that established Senso-ji (Buddhist statues inside)
Some tourists wanted to take pictures with these young ladies wearing kimonos
There's so many little shrines around Senso-ji.
Just outside of the temple, there's a washroom!! I was afraid the washroom would be the squatting kind, it's not but it's not very clean.
Cool building for public toilets.
Took some sticker pictures for ¥400 - we have anime eyes!
Asakusa culture Tourist Information Center
I LOVE how Japan have these plastic models of the items you are ordering. It gives you an idea of how large the serving is and how it looks like. We could just take a picture of these and show it to the waiter/waitress especially if the menu is in Japanese or if they don't speak English.
My dinner - super large plate (¥1652), I was so FULL. Some buttons could've flew off.
And lastly, a night view of the Kaminarimon Gate - there's barely anybody here.
One last shot of tokyo skytree at night before heading back to the station to go home!
And to end the night... sharing a bottle of Asahi Super Dry before snoozing. #Tokyo
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