7 May 2010
Asakusa, boat ride.
Today I headed out to the old part of Tokyo called Asakusa, which looks quite far on the train map but is only about 30 minutes. Never really having to wait for a train makes any trip pretty fast, they really do come every 2 minutes on every line all day every day as far as I can tell. Theres no such thing as a schedule.
Asakusa is where a series of small old temples, a huge temple under construction and various temples that are recreations of other temples exist, theres also a nearby rollercoaster, a pre school, and a tourist trap area full of white people buying japanese fans made in china. There were more white people here than anywhere else.
The actual large temple is really dissapointing, it is being overhauled and covered in plastic sheets, but I think its made of steel and concrete, the smaller temples and statues around it seem genuine.
After burning some incense and praising the buddha, I wandered down to the water, and decided to take a boat. I wandered into what appeared to be the tunnel to the wharf/pier and ended up in an underground bicycle park. The actual entrance to the pier was being reconstructed, so instead you have to walk through a park and down a narrow stairwell, this was quite an adventure, see below for more details.
The boat ride was pretty uninspiring, there are some smaller canals that run off the sides but theres not much to see. Theres bridges every 100 metres but they are very plain and boring.
Once I got off I ended up at a station where Shinkansen were running above ground, I have to plan to go on one because they look fantastic.
Before today I thought the custard sandwhich things I like only came in round form. Japan has improved on this and they now come shaped as a fish. They taste the same, I have no idea why you would want your sweet treat to appear like a fish.
Tourist zone, beware, cheap goods posing as religious relics abound.
The main gate, note sailor moon schoolgirl outfits.
Here I am, having achieved enlightenment. Turns out this temple is part of a pre school, since theres a swing set just behind me.
You have probably seen plastic food before, its everywhere here, someone decided you need a different plastic example for every flavour of ice cream available. My japanese has improved greatly since I arrived and I can now read it fluently, some of the flavours are tuna, fish roe, sour bean curd, dried sardine, pork bits, sheep, spinach with wood fungus and vanilla.
Another part of the temple, the thing on top is surely a mobile phone antenna?
The nazi party has infiltrated the temple scene and placed swastikas on everything.
Inside the big temple, are you allowed to take photos? Other people are.
The roof was the most impressive bit, last temple picture I promise!
There were a number of nice gardens in the general area.
They even have rickshaws around here, but they are chrome plated luxury rickshaws.
Here on the right is the famous golden turd building, and on the left the new tower under construction.
As I mentioned above, I got on a boat, it was pretty deserted.
I preferred to stand at the back in the open air.
Now for the full boat story. Like everything else you buy your ticket from a vending machine. There is no English of any kind at this machine, so I pressed buttons randomly until it asked me to insert some money (about $8). That was a reasonable price so I did that and out came my ticket.
I had no idea where this was going or even if I was going to line up at the right place, so once I joined a line I spied some other peoples tickets and they had the same symbols on them.
Once on board I didnt know when I was supposed to get off, I had lost site of the people whos ticket I saw previously, this boat could have been going to anywhere, some deserted industrial area, another island of Japan, North Korea, I really had no idea.
I got off where most other people seemed to and no one checked my ticket.
On the way home I got off a station early and walked the rest of the way, which brought me to Cafe Lolita.