I like this picture! It tells you the place ‘Edo dori’ (Edo street), you can see the Tokyo Sky Tree and the gold object. As a fan of KinKi Kids, there’s only one thing that I can think of when I see that gold object. Four letters, it begins with a ‘u’ and ends with an ‘o’ Sigh....
Hello Asakusa!
The infamous Kaminarimon with my host mother. It was quite crowded that day as it was a Saturday. Everyone was so busy taking pictures of the Thunder Gate haha.
Kaminarimon
Walk pass the Kaminarimon and you’ll see stores selling all sorts of stuff from key chains, maneki neko, tea pots, tengu’s mask, swords and even wigs!
Masks! Tengu’s (red long nose) my favorite one.
Did someone say that Domoto Koichi was here?
Need some motivation? Get a daruma doll
Maneki neko
Try spotting the mannequin in a chonmage on top of the roof. Come to think about it, I should have bought a chonmage back haha
Not a rare sight in Asakusa
This is taken in front of Sensouji with my host father and host brother. Nihongo is really complicated eh? 浅草 is pronounced as Asakusa and if it’s 浅草寺, it’s pronounced as Sensouji. The wonders of Kanji!
Sensouji~
Everyone was totally inhaling the smoke and some was brushing it on their hair. The smoke is believed to bring you luck and those unwell will feel better after inhaling it. I don’t quite believe in it but did so anyway cause I was really desperate to get better.
Good luck smoke?
Time for some Omikuji! Put in 100-en and shake the container, invert it upside down and a chopstick-like object with a number on it will fall out from the hole. My number was 78.
“I wonder what does 78 says”
Open the drawer with the number 78 written on it and take a piece of paper inside the drawer.
Hmmm....ok?
Don’t understand what it says? They have the English translation printed at the back whooo!
“The highest, excellent fortune”
Okonomiyaki lunch was right after that. Was still feeling unwell so I didn’t really eat much. om nom nom
Sizzling hot okonomiyaki
Right after lunch, my host parents and I head over to the Edo Tokyo Museum located in Ryougoku.
Ironically very contemporary looking exterior
Opposite of the museum, there’s this school and in front of the school, there’s this statue. I’m not sure who is it but it kinda reminded me of Urashima Taro
Urashima Taro ka?
There were lots of things in the museum! I’ll probably dedicate an entry for that. In the mean time, just one picture haha. Back then during the Edo period, houses were built using wood thus when one caught a fire, it spreads like a wildfire. Edo was repeatedly devastated by fire and one of the most serious incident is the “Great Fire of Mireiki” which killed about 100,000 people.
Anyway, the tool I carried is known as the ‘Matoi’ It is used by firemen to notify people of a fire nearby or within a building.
It weighs 15 kilos if you’re wondering.
Okay, so when you’re in Ryougoku what is that something/someone that you MUST see? O-sumo san of course! The tickets were really expensive so you might want to settle with watching it on NHK.
O-sumo san tachi taking a stroll?
These are the Sumo nobori flags. Really colorful eh? By the way, Sumo wrestlers have really interesting names. If you want to learn Kanji, you can look into Sumo wrestler’s names.
Now wave your flag
After visiting Ryougoku, we went home. Guess what is for dinner? *cue sushi kuinee song* My host mother made the maki sushi while host father made the nigiri sushi. It was really really tasty!! On par as the restaurants we have here.
Maki sushi
Nigiri sushi
To be continue...
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