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Published: November 7th 2012
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Standing by the Tora-san statue near the station - a famous star!After a weekend spent with stomach-churning migraines, I finally had a 4-day holiday break, my first set of days longer than a weekend that I have gotten off since starting on July 3. Trust me, I needed it! I took Monday easy, and yesterday I went to Sweets Paradise with my coworker Rani, and we wandered around the department store there. I picked up a few things for myself - I never buy myself things, and what I bought only amounted to $20, but it was really nice to be able to do that sort of thing and not worry about financial repurcussions of it (of course, I still felt guilty for buying anything - we're still working on that!).
And today I met up with my friend Sayuri to head north to Shibamata, an area her mother encouraged us to go see. Neither of us knew where exactly we were going, or what we were going to see, though I had looked up some photos online last night so I had a vague idea of some things there. We were totally blown away by how amazing it was! It took us awhile to get there after meeting at Shinjuku
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The cute place we ate in. Station, since it's pretty far removed from Tokyo (north and east, near Narita), but it's an area that I rarely see so I was happy just to go somewhere new and different.
Shibamata is home to several amazing shrines, temples, gardens and a lot of Edo-style old buildings. We got there and were very hungry, so we stopped and had lunch - standing lunch, at a tiny, tiny local place! - which was not only cheap but FANTASTIC. With Sayuri, I learn a lot about how to do things like order and behave at places like this. It's also great being with her because she talks to shopkeepers and officials, and gets some great stories and information. Everyone was REALLY nice here - it was such a quiet, relaxed atmosphere, completely different from the city.
When we got there, they were filming some sort of drama. We couldn't figure out what it was, but there were a handful of actors (no one we recognized) and three cameras, a ton of staff and a guy with "DIRECTOR" printed across the back of his shirt. We're hoping we are in a few of the shots, because at one point we
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Our delicious lunch! were clapping when they started filming as a woman in a beautiful wedding kimono walked down a red carpet in the middle of the road. Very cool!
Then we found this huge shrine, 帝釈天 (taishakuten), which was gorgeous. According to the English brochure Sayuri procured for me from a helpful shopkeeper, Taishakuten is over 300 years old and famous for wood carvings. It's also been in tons of movies, which explains the drama filming we saw. There was a TON to the temple/shrine, so we started with the incense smoke, and then moved to the Kannon bodhisattva - a Buddhist statue that you pour water on and then rub for health. Sayuri insisted that I do it, so I did - and it was fun! 😊 I love partaking in amazing traditions like this.
We then ventured into the shrine, where a monk was chanting. We threw 五円 (5 yen) coins in the offering and prayed; 5 yen coins (pronounced "goen") are supposedly good luck, since "goen" also means "good karma"! We had to take our shoes off to get into the shrine, where we knelt and prayed again, and then journeyed around to see the wood carvings.
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The approach to Taishakuten THEY WERE BREATH-TAKING. The art degree in me was so pleased. I think I accidentally took like 40 pictures! But for real, they were fantastic - deep and detailed and just really awe-inspiring. We were both properly amazed!
And then we walked around the rest of this sprawling temple and found this beautiful, BEAUTIFUL garden in the back called Suikei-en. We seriously had NO idea it was there, and we were so incredibly happy when we found it. It was easily one of the most beautiful, relaxing spots in this country I've ever visited. We spent a long time there just enjoying the peace and quiet. Shibamata is not a "hot" tourist attraction, and the majority of the people we saw were much older than us, so it was the perfect place to escape the daily hustle and bustle of Tokyo living.
Afterwards, we walked past the filming again (someone needs to watch this and see if we are in it, once we figure out what it was) and took the road up to the river, where there was a gorgeous park. It was such a rural atmosphere; it was really amazing! Lots of runners on the path,
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Statues on the approach bikers, and we met a man with a very cute dog who had wheels for his back legs so he could move around. 😊
Then we stumbled upon - seriously, we again had no idea it was there - 山本亭 (Yamamototei), a semi-Western building that is a tea house! I'd never been in a tea house before, and we hit it right at closing time and the workers were kind enough to allow us in anyway. We ordered some traditional "more green" tea, as Sayuri put it, and then walked around. The garden at Yamamototei is apparently ranked one of the top three most beautiful gardens in Japan, and it was amazing. We sat and drank tea and had the place pretty much to ourselves, and it was so peaceful and wonderful. Very traditional - I was so happy to finally be able to visit a tea house and partake in the culture there, even if it wasn't a full ceremony.
It was dark by that point, so we headed back and started our journey back into Tokyo. We decided to stop in Ginza and walk around because I'd never been there. We even went into Tiffany's, where
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Edo style buildings. Sayuri joked that the workers might have thought we were a couple, and were properly aghast that some articles of jewelry cost more than 4 months of my salary. Ginza is DEFINITELY out of our price range, but it was fun to walk around and see all the ritzy glamour anyway.
All in all, it was a wonderful day and I had a great time exploring a place as rich in tradition as Shibamata. 😊
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Taishakuten
Hi. I went there to Taishakuten Temple last weekend. The carvings there (showing the various tales associated to Buddhism) are marevelous, aren't they? I saw many parents bringing kids for 7-5-3. Had some snacks there too. Cheers.