Early morning rush hour in Tokyo on the metro, Rosie has never experienced anything like it! The panic of trying to squeeze in the door of the train when it is chocka block thinking there is no room and desperately lunging in, and then being jam packed like sardines into said carriage.
Holding your breathe and trying to make yourself as small as possible so as not to get in anyone elses’ space. And the silence, no one talks, there are hundreds of people all around you and no one speaks or says a word.
Rosie was wedged against the door of the train and to her horror, on arrival at the station we needed to get out of the doors on the opposite side of the carriage. Fifty packed people were in Rosie and The Operators way to get out within 30 seconds of the doors shutting again.
‘Excuse me please’ The Operator was wriggling through and Rosie was following in his wake. Low and behold, like helpful citizens, the path cleared, some even stepped off the train to then squeeze back on after we exited. That would never have happened at home, everyone would have grimly held their place for dear life. Rosie loves Japan!
We were off to watch the Sumo training at Ryogoku Sumo Dojo all the way across the other side of Tokyo. A couple of madly packed train interchanges had us in the lovely leafy suburb for 0730am. The Operator deftly navigated us to the door of the Dojo and we saw the windows open and the fighting ring in the middle of the small wooden floored gym. Bring on the big fellas, how exciting!
Tourists are welcome to respectfully watch the morning training through the windows. There are simple rules, no talking, no flash photography although you are welcome to take photographs and no moving around. Sounds good, and we had a front row window being the first to arrive.
Next minute we hear a fire siren getting louder and louder, a giant red Tokyo Fire Service engine is bearing down on us and turns the corner into the next street. Rosie and The Operator wander to the corner and there is actually smoke wafting out of the ground floor building form a high rise in front of us.
The firemen are bustling around running hoses, the security grill is being cut off the shop front where the smoke is coming out. It is all very exciting. The tenants of the high rise are all leaning out of their windows looking down at the firemen working below them…..non of them seemed to show any concern yet their building could be on fire below them. There was also no discernible fire alarm being sounded inside the building. Oh well, looks like everything is under control.
Back at the dojo a few other tourists had turned up and were milling about the open windows. A huge older guy came out of the Dojo (‘ex sumo for sure’ said The Operator) he was talking to a lady who turned to us and said the Dojo was closed for the week and there would be no training taking place as they had washed the floors and it took a week to dry. At least I think that’s what she said. Serious! Bad luck to us, off we all went, disappointed. Onto our next sight for the day.
The suburb of Asakusa was on the cards, we were off to visit the Senso-ji Temple. This is Tokyos oldest temple and was founded in 628AD, more than 1000 years before the founding of Tokyo itself. It is a large complex and one of the busiest sites in town so we were glad we still managed to get there early via the metro.
Walking through the first set of huge red gates with the giant lantern overhead weighing 670kg is amazing.
We have just entered The Thunder Gate. Two Fierce deities, the god of thunder and the god of wind flank the lantern and set you on your path. From here the path leading up to the shrine is the Nakamise-dori, a huge corridor of souvenir, food and craft shops. It was quiet when we arrived, the stall holders were just setting up for the day and starting to display their wares.
The second gate is the Hozo-mon another giant red gate with a huge lantern that was selfie central.
On the back of this gate hangs the Buddhas sandals, giant straw jandals weighing 2,500kg signifying the Buddhas power.
An incense cauldron sits in front of the main hall, the smoke is said to bestow health and there were many people praying at the cauldron and rubbing the smoke over their bodies.
Up the stairs and inside the main shrine we went. It is huge, golden statues, flower arrangements and boards with Japanese writing on them bestowed with ribbons gleam out of the gloom. It all looks so rich and ethereal. The worshipers line up in front to donate money and pray. Looking back out side to the gates the light is so bright and over exposed feeling and it does seem other wordly compared to the one inside the temple.
In the courtyard stands a 5 storey high pagoda which is the second tallest in Japan, it towers over the compound and is a pretty stand alone replica built in 1973 of another pagoda built by the shogun back in the day.
There are a lot of other beautiful nooks and crannies at this temple to explore as well. A beautiful small stream trickles by with the fattest and most colourful carp Rosie has seen.
Rosie and the Operator purchase a omikuji (paper fortunes) for Y100. Make a wish, shake the container and extract a stick. The stick has a number? on it which corresponds with a drawer.
We asked some schoolgirls who were milling around to help us with our number, they giggled away and thought it was neat helping us out. Inside the drawer is a paper fortune…English on the back.
If you get a bad fortune you tie it onto the branch of a tree for the wind to blow the bad fortune away. Rosie kept getting bad fortune after bad fortune….The Operator got a Half Fortune….we will roll with that.
Leaving the temple grounds the crowds are pouring in, Nakamise-dori is heaving with people and it is a fight to get through.
We dodge down a side alley on the hunt for a popular Tempura restaurant for lunch and see for the first time a bunch of girls in traditional kimono dress, so pretty!
Walking out through a covered shopping area right in front of us is the Tokyo Skytower framed in the doorway, Rosie isnt letting that picture past.
Down to the riverfront we go to try and see it abit closer, but hold on, there is a girl in the road with an owl on her shoulder. ‘No photos please but you can photograph and pet heaps of owls at our Owl Cafe just over there’. Rosie is quite excited, she would love to go there. The Cat Cafe was such a cool experience and Owls are heaps awesomer. The Operator rolls his eyes and trundles after Rosie. With this cafe there is no time limit and we pay Y500 each to enter into the dim confines of the ‘jungle’ that the owls live in.
As we walked in Rosies heart sank….lets face it, its mid day, these are nocturnal creatures, it wasnt really that dark in there. There were plenty of owls sitting on branches with one leg tied to a branch.
They were such beautiful creatures and looked to be doped, so docile as visitor after visitor trundled past touching them. When they were touched they did an agitated wee shuffle on the branch and ruffled their feathers…it was very disquieting. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this. They had other caged animals in that room that had no business being there and shouldn’t have been kept in captivity like they were.
Rosie feels bad for having supported this and would encourage everyone else coming to Japan to not visit wild animal cafes, it left a very sour taste in my mouth when we left.
Rosie needed some fresh air and a rise of spirits so we continued on to the riverbank. Asakusa is an older style suburb still clinging onto the old ways with small homely restaurants and a wee web of alley way artisan shops.
Everything is more low rise and older style buildings prevail. On the bridge you can see the Tokyo Skytree in all its glory with the Asahi Brewery building next to it.
It is supposed to represent a mug of beer, hence the coppery colour and the head of foam on top….the golden flame is to represent excellence, but the locals refer to it as the Golden Turd.
That night we had a wonderful Japanese curry meal in a low budget cafeteria. Rosie didnt know curry was a thing in Japan and it smelt so good walking past!
Inside we went, order your meal from the screen by the door, there was an English option thank goodness, pop your money in the slot and a receipt/order spat out that you give to the girl behind the counter. Take a seat at the bar and within two minutes your order is in front of you. Quick, easy painless and super tasty.
Tomorrow we are off to Kyoto on the Shinkasen, bullet train. This city was the capitol of Japan until the mid 1850s and is just overflowing with National Treasures, Rosie hopes three days will be enough to see everything she has on her visiting list.
