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Recovering nicely from the jet-lag :)
We set off on the Tokyo underground at just before 10 at Ebisu and headed towards Asakawa. It was already high 20's temperature wise and VERY HUMID!! But I liked it, and Amanda didn't!!
We arrived to get out the tube station by a shop that was full of Totoro's!! I was very impressed haha. And then in the distance I could see this weird building with a HUUUGEE golden chilli on top of it which was a bit random...
We then went to look around the Sensoji Temple and its surrounding.
There was a big gate leading into the shrine grounds and it had a big lantern hanging in the middle of it. Through this, the view that met you was that of about 200/300m of stalls all in a big straight line, very impressive and exciting because it had the atmosphere of a market and had everything from Kimonos to keyrings!
There was actually quite a lot of men and women wearing Kimonos and I later found out that this is because at the weekends they apparently like to dress up a little bit more, which is fair enough, IF IT WASN'T SO HOT?!!! I honestly don't know how they manage to look so cool and collected wearing such a lot in that weather! But a guy was handing out free fans so we all got one, which proved to be a very useful thing to have.
The Sensoji Shrine is considered to be Japans most sacred shrine. Many of the surrounding buildings (including the pagoda) were destroyed in the world wars and so were rebuilt but it the same style, with the original materials and such like. It was all very impressive.
Before you went into the main shrine, there was something that looked like a wishing well, but was actually full of insense, which you wafted over yourself to 'purify' yourself before you entered. Although it smelt nice, I couldnt waft too much because it was soo hot! but i did my bit :)
Inside the shine, people were praying and paying tributes and wrapping bit of paper with what I am guessing was prayers on them around wooden poles.
The building itself was amazing, there were all these paintings of dragons and stuff on the ceilings and there were fresh flowers everywhere.
After this, I went into the gardens, these were very nice except the noise from all the insects was so incredibly loud! And if you hung around too long ti got kind of annoying, a bit like pigeons and things like that in England! :P
There are all these drinks machines everywhere and like Amanda warned me, I have ended up spending so much money on drinks already, you just get so thirsty all the time!
We then went down a load of side alleys and went to a restaurant for lunch. It was very nice and the service is so quick (and that goes for any of the places I've been so far).
We then just kinda followed John, and hoped he knew where he was going. We went down streets lined with little quirky shops and weirdly, there were a lot of shops that were just lined with the most ridiculous assortment of knives!
From there, the alleys opened out onto a main street, which was famous for being the main suppler of kitchenware to most people in Japan. It have everything from Rice bowls to kitchens sinks to umbrella racks, and would supply anybody from your average family or apartment to any of the restaurants in Japan! So of course there was a huge selection, and the whole street was lined top to bottom with these shops.
It did get seriously hot and didn't rain at all (apparently it has been unseasonably rainy the past week) which was good, although not very helpful when you are trying to cope with the weather compared to England!
I am really enjoying myself so far :) Tokyo is an amazing city, and I've only been down a few streets!
And to top the day off nicely, Amanda and I watched Bridget Jones' Diary in the evening :D OOOHHH YEAAAHHH!!
xxxxx
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