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Published: January 1st 2012
Greg, got up too early, according to his family. Despite this great disturbance, the day started slowly. We took a train a short hop to the electronics, animae, manga district in Akihabara. Greg was curious to see if there were any bargains to be had. We ate convenience store food for breakfast. They sell hard boiled eggs in little yellow webbed bags that are boiled in salty water so they are salt infused = good. On the way to Akihabara there was a donut shop that was selling chocolate raised donuts with green tea icing. Kristy was not hungry, but swore to come back to eat one. They are special winter flavors celebrating the New Year.
We looked at animae stores, a "Potato" store crammed full of old electronic games, and a Volks doll store that has ball joint dolls that are all the rage with USA collectors. There were corner electronic stores selling inexpensive Chinese electronic everythings USB: USB humidifiers, USB mice, USB foot warmers, LED light bulbs, etc, etc...
We noticed that not many people were wandering around yet, but young couples started to fill Akihabara as the day approached noon. We ducked into a Japanese style
Akihabara
Electronics District in Tokyocurry place for lunch that appeared to be a chain, CoCo-Ichiban. They had low prices, which to me is unusual, and a good selection. We had fried chicken on curry with rice, stewed chicken on curry with rice, fried squid salad and porked curry rice. You could order the sizes of rice portions, curry hotness, and sides, like roasted garlic. We added cheese bread as a side. The curry was excellent.
After lunch we searched around Akihabara a bit more and headed for the hotel area. When back in the Ueno area people had definitely gotten out of bed and hit the streets for bargains. There are many small steel roll up door shops around the hotel and selling fish, fruits, vegetables, and clothing mostly. It was wall to wall people looking for New Year's Day presents we can only guess. Kristy and Beth lunged into the madness ripping through crowds in search of the perfect gloves, hats, earrings, a mystery tail, and bananas. I grabbed them, roped and tied them, and took them back to the hotel.
We took a rest for about three hours knowing that we would be staying up late.
We got up
around 7 ish and went downtown to the Tokyo Tower. It was dark and there was a crowd, but not too huge yet. We got tickets and went up into the tower to the 450 foot observation deck. There was an hour wait to the top, and an additional fee, so we stayed down below. The city was lit up and many people were facebooking themselves holding phones up with the city light below. The Tower had amazing computer animation screens set up in each of the four directions labeling the major buildings one could see. It also played a time lapse animation of the skyline covering a 24 hour period from sunrise to dark with the night scene. It would loop automatically, or you could scroll throught the day to watch the shadows move on the buildings. From the observation deck you could see the Shiba park and Buddhist temple below getting set up for the changing of the year. The Buddist monks ring a bell 108 times, each ring for one of the "sins of man" that must be atoned for. This is a big ceremony for Buddhists, as we would see later.
We descended from the
observatory and ate a light dinner at McDonald-San's. We were just in time at the shops in the tower base started to close and kick people out at 9:30ish. It appeared as if most people were lingering in the tower shops and bathrooms not wanting to stand out in the cold around the temple.
In observation for the New Year, they (I assume the Buddist priests) sell you a special piece of paper, colored and oblong. On this you note your New Year's desire. You stand in another line, and they give you a clear helium balloon with a string. On the string you affix the pre-gummed paper to the balloon. There is a large Buddist temple in the park, Senso-Ji, which is the seat for a sect of Buddhism. There we probably about 10,000 people crowded around the temple and on the steps awaiting New Year's. At midnight all the translucent balloons are released into the sky carrying everyone's wish skyward. At about 11:45pm the priest play a high pitched flute, almost screeching, and a high priest official makes a short speech. We counted down the year, in about 10 languages it seemed, and the balloons were let
go. We saw other bunches of balloons in other parts of the city go up also. Some poor souls had their balloons stuck in the closest tree branches. I wonder what that portends for the year? Many international embassies are housed in this section of Tokyo and we saw many different nationalities there. Overheard some French, Dutch, Arabic, English, and of course Japanese. After the ballon release the temple opens their doors so the people can see the "Black Buddah." It is one of only four times yearly the temple allows visitors. This Black Buddah was the same worshipped by Ieyasu Tokugawa. Tokugawa was one of the shogun who established samurai rule for awhile. He moved the Japanese capital from Kyoto to Edo (modern day Tokyo). The current temple was rebuilt in 1950 as the original was destroyed in bombing in WWII.
Enough history, the masses then all ascended the temple steps and looked at the priests chanting and playing a large drum. The bell started ringing at intervals of about 30 seconds for all the sins. Most people toss a 5 yen coin for good luck into a giant white plastic lined trough, set up for the occasion,
Macha Donut
Here is the famous donut that I didn't buy and lived to regret it. I never saw another donut like this one and I wanted to try it! We almost made a special trip to this station for this donut. Someone please tell me how I can get one. and then exit. The priest were decked out in their finery for the occasion wearing orange and purple.
We left the temple and went back to the subway and made our way back to the hotel and went to sleep about 2AM.
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kristen gadd
non-member comment
OMG! this sounds amazing! I can't wait to see pics!