Today was Sunday. Initially, we planned to go Hakone and shibazakura festival. We came to realization that it takes around 2 hours to make our trip to Hakone. Around an hour from Hakone to shibazakura festival location. Since we did not wake up that early we decided to forfeit our plan as it wouldn't be worth the money as it cost about 4000 yen for the Hakone free pass. ): We shifted our plan to Asakusa, Ueno Park and Tokyo Sky tree.
We bought the one day tokyo metro ticket for 600 yen. And so we start our journey as tourist keke.
As Asakusa is famous for its temple, we went to check out Sensoji Temple and hope to bring back some good luck with us ~ In order to get to Sensoji Temple, we first had to walk through Nakamise - dori street. Since it was a weekend, the street was bustling with people. We had much difficulties getting through the crowd. There were alot of Japanese and tourist who were wearing Kimono. Does anyone knows where to get them or how to rent them ? As we really hope to try on one T_T Its so pretty. Along the way, we also sighted a lot of local snacks and souvenirs.
Some photos that we took before entering the temple.
We went to draw "Omikuji” better known as personal fortunes in english.
Omikuji is a Japanese paper fortune which can be obtained by drawing lots in most shrines and temples.
It gives a range of fortunes from “excellent” to “unlucky.” Although the range of fortunes depends on each temple/shrine, the range basically is the following.
- Great blessing (dai-kichi, 大吉)
- Middle blessing (chū-kichi, 中吉)
- Small blessing (shō-kichi, 小吉)
- Blessing (kichi, 吉)
- Near-blessing (sue-kichi, 末吉)
- Near-small-blessing (sue-shō-kichi, 末小吉)
- Curse (kyō, 凶)
- Great curse (dai-kyō, 大凶)
Luckily the temple is so modernized, it even has English translation for tourists on the fortune paper. So cool right?
After drawing our lots, we went to wash our hands with the dragon water for purification purposes.
We learnt that even the smallest shrines or temples have a Chozuya. Asakusa temple is no different. Thankfully, using one is very simple.
1. Grasp the ladle with your right hand and pour the water over the left.
2. Switch hands with the ladle.
3.Grasp the ladle with your left hand and pour the water over the right.
4. Then switch hands with the ladle, pour water into the left hand cupped, drink it, swish around the mouth and spit it out. However, this is optional.
5. Tilt the handle perpendicular and let the water run down the handle of the ladle to clean it.
Nat drawed a good fortune paper
While.... Van drawed a bad luck fortune paper so she had to tie it to the metal. Lets give her some blessings. hehe
We took some photos while exploring Nakamise-dori street.
We bought mixed ice shave because the weather was super hot.
Tried out the traditional Japanese way of tying hair using a hairpin.
Walked along the streets on our way to lunch and saw a bush of Hydrangeas, it was so beautiful we could not help but stop and stare and also take pictures with it as Singapore rarely has such a pretty sight unless you are in gardens by the bay.
And so we stopped by a restaurant just nearby for lunch and ate soba again. We also realised that the Japanese meal often consists of rice and noodles together which is another unusual thing we experienced. This is so because in Singapore, you either eat rice or noodles and not both in the same meal.
Right after lunch, we immediately went off to venture to the next location which is the Tokyo Skytree. We saw it from the Sensoji Temple and decided that we had to go there and see. So while walking there, we stopped by Sumida lake to grab some photos.
Just us goofing around.. hehe
Tried super hard to get the shot of us kissing the skytree but we failed so badly and many people were judging us.
Just as we were walking around finding our way to the Tokyo Skytree, we saw this bowl like structure and was curious to find out what it is, and there were holes in which you could stick your head through to see the inside. We poked our head in and saw 2 guys which did the same thing. As we were taking photos and videos, we were abit startled to see them. The two guys were very friendly and came to approach us. That was how we made 2 new Japanese friends.
We wanted to get to the skytree but we werent sure of the road, our 2 friends brought us there as they were also heading to the skytree and we talked along the way.
With our new friends ~~
THE TOKYO SKYTREE WAS SO BEAUTIFULLLLL
but too expensive to go up :(
At night we ate some fish...Let's just guess how we ordered it kekekek
Dinner wasnt enough so Nat whipped up some "sumptuous" dinner hehehe
At night it was freezing cold
But yes, it was a good and productive day out
To more adventures~~
Toodles
