Tokyo - Senso-Ji Temple, Shopping Street, Summer Parade and eating local

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After an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpu, I arrived at Tokyo’s Narita airport to be greeted by the transfer company - Green Tomato. Green Tomato are a great company who provide a shuttle bus service from the airport into Tokyo, well worth booking as it’s over 60km to Tokyo from the airport. You just have to keep in mind this won’t be a private transfer, but they do take you right to the door of your hotel. I had a wait of around an hour before my transfer bus would leave as we were waiting for other passengers. After collecting them from the next terminal we started our journey into Tokyo.

I sat by the window and started to try and take in the views of the city on the route to my hotel, some of the buildings were huge and the view over the water was really quite impressive. The traffic started to get quite heavy as we approached the city and we were sitting for quite some time in a huge line of traffic queuing for rainbow bridge.

I finally reached my hotel which was a Japanese Ryokan, a traditional inn with a mix of western style and Japanese style rooms with public bathing available in the hotel. I arrived a day before my tour was due to start so I had an extra night in the hotel and I was given a western style room, which I have to say was pretty grim. The room was basic with a tiny bathroom which was no problem at all, but, it had the strongest smell of cigarette smoke, it was awful. Language being quite a big barrier, I got on with it and decided to stay in the room knowing I’d be changing rooms the following day. I spent the afternoon walking around the local streets and getting an idea of the area around the hotel and went to bed early.

The next morning, I checked out of my room and moved to a Japanese style room which had 2 futon mattresses on the floor with bedding in a pile ready for me to make my bed. I’d be sharing my room with another solo traveller on the tour. I set off for a walk further around the area and decided to head straight to the Senso-Ji temple in the Asakusa region of the city.

Senso-Ji is an ancient Buddhist temple, the oldest in Tokyo. The legend says that in the year 628, two brothers fished a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, out of the Sumida River, and even though they put the statue back into the river, it always returned to them. Consequently, Senso-ji was built nearby for the goddess of Kannon. The temple was completed in 645, making it Tokyo's oldest temple. The site is quite extensive with a number of structures around the main hall. There is a 5 story pagoda across the square from the main hall and a shrine built in 1649. Most of the buildings in the complex have been rebuilt since the war when they were mostly destroyed.

The area in and around the main hall was really busy with locals and tourists walking around, making offerings, obtaining fortunes and generally taking in the impressive site. I decided to make an offering with inscense, I didn’t really know what I was doing, but, I followed everyone else and managed to wing it! Firstly, I went to wash my hands and followed everyone else in the order of doing things and then went to pay for my inscense, lit it in the fire and placed in the ashes with all the others.

I walked around the temples and shrines, there were a number of young Japanese girls dressed in what I would describe as stereotypical Japanese dress having photoshoots done. They all looked beautiful in their kimonos and faultless makeup, all of them were happy for me to join in taking photos as well, which was really nice.

A little walk from the temple and main hall, there were gardens with statues and older structures on display, there was a huge pond with a bridge over it with so many koi carps, it was a very unexpected area of calm and peacefulness in such a huge and busy city. After taking all of this in, I headed for the shopping street next to Senso-Ji.

The street is around 200m long and has small stores either side of the walkway, the stores contained a variety of products from magnets and keyrings to chopsticks, fans and food of all kinds. It was so interesting to walk through this incredible busy area. I bought a few small gifts and was surprised to be greeted by the store owners with ”hello”. I’d made sure to learn a couple of Japanese words such as hello, thank you, goodbye and I don’t understand before I set off so I had a little practice as I went along. It seemed all of the people were pleased I was having a go, but, they were equally happy to be practicing their English, although many of them were very shy. I left the shopping street and walked the surrounding area and got myself an ice cream it was like a Mr Whippy but purple and it had what I can only describe as candied French fries stuck in it where there is normally a flake! Strange, but, really nice.

I continued to walk around the streets, having a walk in the odd store on the way. Quickly spotted Starbucks (no surprise there!), Burger King and KFC... I bypassed them all and walked over the bridge to the other side of the river towards the sky tower and found a really pleasant vegan cafe by the river and ordered lunch and coffee. After lunch, I walked down by the river for a short time and then decided to make the long walk back to the Ryokan in preparation for meeting my new tour group.

I got back and somehow managed to not get lost and realised I’d walked over 6 miles and it was really hot so downed a couple of bottles of water! I met my guide and rest of the tour group - there were 8 of us in total. Our guide, Michie, gave us a couple of options for the evening, we could got to watch the summer festival parade which was on that evening, a firework display or both. I opted for the parade, we got on the metro to where the parade ended so we could see the last 3 or 4 floats and dance groups, one of the dancers gave me a set of bells which Michie told me was for good luck - not sure what I did to deserve it, but, I was so happy to have been given them - a nice moments for me and it meant everyone would be able to hear me for the rest of the week with them jingling in my bag! After we’d found a good spot, some of the group went to the firework display and Michie returned to collect us and arrange something for dinner.

We walked down a few tiny streets until we arrived at an Izakaya - an informal Japanese pub where you can eat, drink or both. We went upstairs, removed shoes and took our table seated on the floor with our feet below the floor. Michie chose a selection of dishes for us to share including seafood salad, a celery dish, sashimi and sushi. I apologised in advanced for my lack in ability to use chopsticks and had a bit of all the dishes. I was a little apprehensive of sushi and sashimi, but I LOVED all of it. We were surrounded by locals meeting friends and family for dinner. It was so loud, but, everyone was having a fab time and it was amazing to be part of such a fabulous experience.

After dinner we took the metro back to the Ryokan.

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