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Asakusa - Sensoji temple
Kaminarimon, latern at the gate. The last days are upon us, and Michi and I are squeezing in other parts of Tokyo. We headed out Tuesday afternoon to Asakusa, part of the Taito district in downtown Tokyo. It is another large toursit area famous for shrines, particularly Sensoji (aka Asakusa Kannon), Tokyo's largest Buddhist temple. Hard to compare it to the grandure of Kyoto, but still pretty. A large amount of tourists, and a cool little street lined with all kinds of vendors selling anything from Japanese sweets to chintzy plastic crap that chirps, beeps, and emits generally annoying sound. The temple entrance presents Kaminarimon (thunder gate), featuring a huge lantern. It was built in 942, but has been rebuilt many times due to destruction. The most recent reconstruction was done in 1950. At the other end of the tourist street that the gate opens to is Kannondo (Kannon Hall). "Built in 628 to house a statue of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy...To the west is Gojuto (5-story Pagoda), reputedly containing some of the ashes of Buddha." The quote is from some information I gathered about the place. I couldn't say it any better. :-)
We had a nice little lunch in the area,
Kaminarimon
Thunder Gate at Sensoji temple and wandered down toward the "water bus," as we thought it would be nice to catch more of the city from the water. The water taxi we wanted had stopped running for the day, so we hopped on the subway to Roppongi.
Roppongi is yet another large shopping area, but high-end, scattered with the boutiques of Versace, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton, etc. There are some museums in the area as well, and more impressive buildings.
That evening, we headed back to Shinjuku for more awesome Sushi - stuffed ourselves on pick-and-choose all-you-can-eat. I managed to put back 25 pieces, Michi did 24. Full, but not miserable, we wandered back to Shinjuku Nichome, the gay area, for some drinks. We settled into Advocates, the tiny little cafe bar open to the street where ended our night last Saturday. It was surprisingly busy for Tuesday. The place was pretty full, but that doesn't take much given its size. After a few beers (and glasses of champagne for Michi), we were approached by a local. After some initial introductions and conversation, an American friend of his joined us, and we all continued to imbibe, talk, and flirt. We left the bar
around 3am, and made plans to all go Karaoke Wednesday night.
Wednesday plans to be a "Lost in Translation Day." It will include dressing up with a trip to the Park Hyatt, the hotel where Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson stayed. To be continued with karaoke at one of the huge karaoke complexes, hopefully with the new friends we met at the bar.
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