Place Review – Asakusa

A couple months ago I decided to go to a place called Asakusa on a whim. It’s in Tokyo, but is quite far from the downtown area even by train. After at least 30 minutes of hopping trains, I finally arrived. I wasn’t too sure as to what was even there, but I was surprised to see a large red shrine called Senso-Ji which I had previously only seen in photographs. All of the tourists taking pictures in front of it took away a great deal of the wonder, but it was still pretty interesting nonetheless.

There is also one of the largest “shotengai,” or outside markets, that I’ve seen in Japan. For all it’s size, it was however a little disappointing since most of the market was only filled with stores selling cheaply made souvenirs. Anytime something crazy caught my interest to take a picture, the shop keepers would yell when they saw me getting my camera ready. I did however manage to get a great Engrish picture despite all of the “prohihitions.”

At the end of the market there are a couple of food shops with small portions of senbei and some terrible squishy pastry that I forgot the name of. After that, there are several more impressive old buildings and that’s where it ends. I walked for several blocks but nothing else there was very interesting. Perhaps I should’ve done some research first and maybe there were some hidden places that I was unaware of. There was however a boat cruise that looked pretty interesting. Outside of the boat cruise line there was a group of the most ragtag 60 year old musicians I’d ever seen and I watched them beat on some wooden boxes and “sing” for about 10 minutes. It was actually one of the highlights of my trip.

Place Review – Harajuku

While my cousin Erin was here from America, we traveled to almost every part of downtown Tokyo, from Shinjuku to Ueno. One of the more interesting places however was Harajuku. If I had to say the thing first thing that sticks out in head about it, it would have to be the strange people; the most abundant of which were goth kids. What made the whole scene even stanger is that I’ve already seen that trend come and go in America ages ago.

From the train station the first thing you see is a long street with boutique clothing stores on both sides packed with locals and tourists. There were so many people in fact that we had to get off the street for a few minutes just to catch our breath and look around. We also spent a considerable amount of time in a two story dollar store and loaded up with souvenirs and took tons of pictures.

Later, while resting at a nearby shrine we met a Canadian girl who lived in Korea and we decided to sightsee together. We decided to set out in search of a famous corner where the goth kids hang out that she had read about in her travel guide. Some of them were eager to have their picture taken with tourists, but the majority of them were hounded for pictures as if they were animals at the zoo. From a third person perspective, both the goth kids and the overzealous photographers all seemed like lunatics.

After walking around several lakes and parks, we saw the famous rockabilly dancers of Harajuku. They were drunk as hell on sake and look like they came straight out of the 50s. After watching them for awhile, we then saw some street bands and bough a CD of a band called Scarf. I may write a review of them later after I check out the CD. As of now it’s been several months and I still haven’t gotten around to it.

Since the Canadian girl was only here on vacation, I wanted to show her what an izakaiya was but for the first time since I’ve been here I couldn’t find one anywhere. We ended up walking through the fashion district and found a place that loosely resembled an izakaiya and I thought we were ok. I should’ve known it would be overpriced when all of the nearby stores were Burberry, Coach, Prada, and the like. We ended up paying $10 for the small appetizer dish which has always been free on every other occasion, along with overpriced beer and water.

Place Review – Shinjuku

The one place in Tokyo that I’ve spent the most time at by far is Shinjuku. According to Wikipedia it’s home to the busiest train station in the world. There are so many exits at the station that even a friend of mine who lives 10 minutes from the station had trouble finding me when I went to a different exit than usual.

Inside the station there are a ton of stores including everything from major department store to tiny specialty shops like one that only sells various kinds of Norwegian beer. There is also plenty going on outside as well. Outside the new south exit for instance there are bands that play all along the street. If you had to, you could probably make an evening out of just hanging around the train station.

Each street you go down seems to be completely different. Among the many, there is one street lined with massage parlors and sex shops and another called American Street which is full of skate shops and other American style clothing shops. Shinjuku is also home to Korean town. Here you can get authentic kim-chi from one of the many restaurants and enjoy a beer at one of the many open tables that line the street. The area leading to Korean town is slightly run down but I never really felt too unsafe at any point.

Place Review – Kamakura

Kamakura is a mainly historic district in southern Yokohama with plenty to see and do from shrines to great food and a beach. It’s also only a short train ride from other great spots like Fujisawa and Enoshima Island making it a great place to start a day of sightseeing. The main attraction of Kamakura is Daibutsu, a large bronze Buddha statue.

Before getting to the main part of Kamakura, you first arrive at a different station about 25 minutes walking distance away from all of the best stuff. From here you can either connect to a smaller train line or walk, I suggest the latter since there is some great stuff to see on the way. In front of this station (too lazy to look up name) there is a large outdoor market and mostly modern buildings. If I remember correctly, the market was mostly food as opposed to souvenirs with a number of small coffee shop style restaurants dotting the area. The street is very narrow and packed with people so I made a quick run of it, but it was still interesting nonetheless.

In Kamakura there are countless shrines and historic landmarks, close to 25 to be exact, but there is one fairly large one that is a must see…I’m a terrible tour guide…I have no idea what it’s called, but it’s close to the main downtown area. I happened to just stumble into it and maybe if you go you’ll do the same. It’s located at the top a large hill and along the left hand side of the street there are pretty decent souvenir shops the whole way to the shrine. It costs roughly 400 yen to enter and it’s packed with plenty of photo opportunities and incredible views of the shoreline.

The beach area in Kamakura is bit lacking, but it’s worth a quick stop to break up all of the sightseeing. It’s quite small and the dark black sand makes the whole thing quite unappealing.

Daibutsu is the main attraction of Kamakura and it stands about 43 feet high (13 meters…I still can’t get used to this whole meters thing). For 30 yen, or $0.30 USD, you can actually walk inside, but it’s incredibly disappointing. You pretty much fight your way against people leaving the statue in what is barely enough space for one person to fit into. The whole experience is like being thrust into a mosh pit inside of a tiny metal box. Once inside, you immediately realize that there is nothing to see and turn around 30 yen poorer than when you came in. There is a small souvenir desk with a bunch of overpriced books about Buddhism for the foreigners that get a little too inspired, but I did manage to an awesome key chain for about 400 yen or so.

The statue itself seems somewhat normal after awhile until you look at the sepia photos nearby with European royalty from hundreds of years ago posing in front and it hits you just old this thing really is. I’ve heard of people having similar experiences while visiting the Great Pyramids in Egypt as well. When something is built by people, but has outlasted countless generations, it kind of gives you an odd perspective on things.

After you’ve seen about as much historic stuff as you can take, there is a great hiking trail about a ten minute walk from Daibutsu. You should be warned however that it is a lot longer than it appears. I decided to be adventurous and after about an hour of walking I regretted my decision. About halfway through the trail, there is a very cool looking restaurant and cafe nestled in the woods. I really wanted to stop, but my first priority was finding a way out of the woods because I had to work the next day…and I was broke. I finally came to a clearing which was surprisingly residential. Luckily, another foreigner who lived nearby gave some directions and before I knew it I was right back in the woods. After about another 20 minutes, there was another shine and a fork in the road. There I met three people who helped me find the train station and we stopped at yet another shrine on the way to wash money which is good luck or something. Thanks again to the people who helped me get out of the forest!

So there’s that…I’m back. I actually have other posts written on paper but I’m too lazy to work them out on the blog. Tonight I’m going to an Enkai, another work party, and then one more day of work and a company meeting before starting a break until September. The next few posts will probably come around Sunday or so since I may go to the beach on Saturday.

Later – Brad

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