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Many people who know me know that I like to schedule long layovers in Japan en route to/from Singapore. This wasn't the case until a few years ago. As children, my parents lived through Japan's brutal occupation of Singapore and my dad in particular has never been comfortable around Japanese. Growing up, we lived in an expat-friendly neighborhood; my parents, to their credit, did not stop me from making playmates out of the two Japanese kids next door. Despite interacting with Japanese people from an early age, I never really had much desire to visit Japan and so when I moved to the US, I only booked flights with short connections in Japan. This changed in 2009 when I had no choice but to book a trip with a twelve hour connection in Tokyo. On that layover, I contacted my UCLA classmates for lunch and then I started wandering around a bit and I was hooked! I went there on vacation a year later and I started planning for longer layovers as well. Haneda Airport's opening up has been a godsend as there seem to be more mileage award tickets available from that airport, thus facilitating my long layovers.
My
The Sanja Matsuri Fashion Parade
Not too flattering, in my humble opinion.latest eleven hour layover coincided with the first day of the Sanja Matsuri festival at the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. I read that Sanja Matsuri is one of the rare occasions where open display of yakuza tattoos is tolerated by law enforcement, and so I hoped to get some photo opportunities.
I landed at Narita Airport at 1.20pm, cleared immigration and customs and was on the 1.58pm Keisei Skyliner train to Ueno. The Skyliner is cheaper and faster than the Narita Express (43 minutes versus 53 minutes) and it deposited me at Ueno at 2.40pm. At Ueno, I walked towards the subway lines, deposited my roller bag at a very conveniently located locker, and was at Sensoji by 3pm.
Not unexpectedly, Sensoji was a bit of a zoo. I wandered around, ate a few snacks, watched a stage performance, and had a blast people watching. But, no yakuza tattoos. Boo! The portable shrines that Sanja Matsuri is known for were also nowhere in sight. I was also craving pocari sweat sports drink thanks to the repeated ads on the Keisei Skyliner (Jeff and I got addicted to the stuff in 2010) but none of the vending machines seemed
Sanja Matsuri Shrine on the Move
Finally, after 25 minutes of waiting. to have it. Double boo!
Feeling a tad bit dejected, I started making my way out of Sensoji around 4pm. While wandering the side streets around the temple, I chanced upon a mobile shrine and some devotees who looked as if they were about to start carrying it. Now, that's more like it! So, I hung around and waited. And waited. Nothing happened for 25 minutes. At least I had fun people watching and observing the interesting and not-so-sexy outfits the devotees wore. Apart from the devotees, there was a man I assumed was a priest - he was in white carrying a tree branch - and some random guy in a yukata, an eyepatch and various plastic flowers hanging from his hat. I assume this guy was a local "personality" and not part of the contingent. I was about to give up waiting when a guy wearing a long-nosed red mask showed up, people started clapping, and the shrine finally got hoisted up. I followed the devotees as they brought the shrine around the corner and up the block towards Sensoji. They then put the shrine down and the guy in the mask sat on a chair and
posed for photo opportunities. After a bit of hanging around, I departed the scene only to come across a second shrine being transported. Score! I left Sensoji happy despite not seeing any overt yakuza presence.
See the videos below for the two shrines.
My second agenda item for my layover was to find the Godzilla statue in Ginza. This statue doesn't seem to feature prominently in the Lonely Planet and I only learned of it while staring at my Tokyo map a week before my trip and seeing the words "Godzilla Statue". I was of course intrigued. I returned to Ueno, collected my roller bag from the locker and took the Hibiya line to Hibiya station. Exiting the station, I found the statue easily. The statue was disappointingly small, but it still made for a few good photo ops including a classic selfie that garnered dozens of likes on Facebook within a hour of my posting it. I must have amused the hell out of the people in the nearby eateries who had a clear view of me at the statue.
My third and last goal for the layover was to eat sushi
My Dinner at Edogin
Look at the size of the tamago! at Tsukiji. Tsukiji itself was of course closed, but Edogin restaurant nearby came highly recommended. Taking the Hibiya line to Tsukiji station, I found Edogin easily (I'm becoming a real pro at navigating Tokyo!). I was warmly welcomed into the restaurant and the wait staff presented me with an English menu and a chart with common phrases to help me communicate. I love the service culture in Japan and the steps they take to make sure you are cared for. Anyway, I ordered the twelve piece omakase featuring in-season fish for JPY4500. It came 10 minutes later. The sushi itself was so fresh, but two things threw me off. One was the size of the tamago (egg) - it was so huge that I had to eat it in three bites! The second was the color of the uni (sea urchin gonads) - it was grey as opposed to the usual orange. It was still gooeyliciously good though. Edogin doesn't have the most refined sushi but it was fresh! The only drawback was that they had a smoking section and the cigarette smoke was off putting and it caused me to finish my meal faster. Much as I wanted to
savor the experience, I cut short my visit there.
Leaving Edogin, I made my way via subway and monorail to Haneda Airport. After checking in, I made a beeline for the ANA Lounge where my first priority was to take a shower. After that, I checked out the food offerings and, lo and behold, they had pocari. I drank four glasses of the stuff, ate udon from the noodle bar, and then boarded the redeye to Singapore on ANA's new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
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