Once again, once more, I am back with my Japan blogs. What better way to motivate me to get all this content done than enhanced quarantine here in The Philippines! I must say I am very lucky that my only problem right now is that I am bored being locked up in my house with all the resources available at arm's length, while there are a lot of people out there who are struggling, who are still working in order to provide food for their families 😔 If you want to help out. you may want to check my posts about donation efforts here: The Fashion Earrings Fund & Outside The Lines Coloring Book.
Anywaaaay, back again to the main spotlight of this post: 3rd day in Tokyo! So last February wow, it's been 2 months already??? me and my boyfriend, Ken, went to Japan, where we visited a couple of sights and places that we've always wanted to go to but failed to do so during our first visits to this glorious country. On our technically 2nd day, we went to Akihabara where we indulged in everything games, anime, and toys-related. For our 3rd day, we decided to visit a place that we both have been to in the past: Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa.
To say that I love Asakusa, particularly Senso-ji Temple, feels like an understatement. Every time I visit this part of Tokyo I always stumble upon something magical, whether it be in a form of food, item, architecture, and even people, and for my 3rd visit to this place it definitely was no exception.
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| Thankfully his future is bright-because I'll be in it |
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| c/o Ken |
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| c/o Ken | My face after finding out that my photo in the entrance was blurred... Also, look at my Class Act Ph earrings ♥ |
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| c/o Ken |
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| c/o Ken |
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| My hand waving at the sushi I wish I have put in mah belly! |
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| First round of MAAAAANY rounds. |
For some reason I always wound up having the best food whenever I am in Asakusa, from yummy desserts like those strawberry-flavored treats, to weird but surprisingly delicious juice made of seaweed and green tea, Asakusa has never disappointed me on the culinary department. Given the good image Asakusa had inflicted on me with regards to gastronomic experiences, I did not think twice when Ken asked me if we can have lunch in this quaint sushi place he went to last year.
Since I don't know how to read Hiragana YET, I'm not really sure what's the name of this resto, but what I am sure of is it's inside the shopping arcade near Asakusa station, and it's in the same side of the McDonald's. Unlike the usual set-up of Sushi places here in the Philippines, if you want a plate of let's say a sashimi you don't need to order, instead you just wait for it to pass by the conveyor plate in front of you. You can go ham with all the sushi your heart desires, however you also have to keep in mind of the colors of the plates you'll take to your table, since each plate you take corresponds to a price which ranges from ¥ 150- 750 depending on how special it is. There we had a couple of plates of sushi that we ended up paying around ¥ 4000-5000 for the whole ordeal.
For our next excursion, we literally went across the water, from Asakusa to Ryogoku to visit the Sumo museum. When we were in our early stage of dating I remember how he fondly tells me his dream to be a sumo wrestler when he was a kid, and with this I decided to incorporate visiting the Sumo museum in our trip.
As mentioned, the Sumo museum is a stone's throw away from Asakusa station, however we did not walk to cross the bridge to go there, and instead we took the train-Thank God for unlimited train ride passes! Ryogoku is historically known as the center of Sumo wrestling, a popular sport played by Japanese for centuries, so no wonder they have the Sumo museum placed in that district.
When we arrived at the entrance of the museum we were welcomed with closed ticket counters, and in my mind, 'this is not good.' Indeed the entrance is closed, so we try to decipher the reason why its closed by checking the bulletins, which is in Japanese. Upon checking, there's a calendar that shows specific dates, but since we don't understand Japanese nor Google Translate doing a good job, we quickly just assumed that there's probably a holiday that's why it's closed. However at the corner of our eyes we saw a Caucasian couple and a Japanese guy entering a smaller gate compared to the main gate with the ticket counters, and with that we start to ask ourselves if it's really closed. Armed with our Google translate, I marched to the security guard to ask if the museum is closed, and lo and behold it isn't! What we assumed to be the main entrance is actually entrance to the Ryogoku Kokugikan which is a Sumo hall where they hold tournaments, and the Sumo museum is actually inside the Sumo hall. The reason why it's closed is because there are no tournaments for that day, BUT the museum is open and you can go inside by entering the side gate.
And that my friend is why you should always ask 😉
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| The similarity is uncanny. |
Entrance to the Sumo museum is FREE! Just to manage your expectations the museum is small, but it's jampacked with history of this sport, so if you are fascinated to know more about Sumo wrestling you ought to visit this. Also, taking photos and videos are a no-no, so better put your camera and phone in your pockets and enjoy the exhibition.
To add to my postcard collection, I got this cool postcard 👍
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| c/o Ken |
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| c/o Ken |
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| c/o Ken |
Given that we finished our excursion to the museum at around 3:30 PM, we decided to go to the other side of Tokyo, and that is Meiji Jingu which is located in Shibuya. It took us almost 30 minutes to go from Ryogoku to Shibuya, taking a couple of different train lines since our 72-hour unlimited train pass is not applicable to JR lines but available to almost ALL private train lines. When we arrived at the Meiji temple entrance I did not anticipate it to be sooooo cold! How cold? We had to stop over to the restaurant 100 meters off of the entrance just to be a hot drink at the vendo to give warmth to my palms! But nonetheless it was a good relaxing cold being nestled inside a forest full of trees, however just a small tip: DON'T WEAR SKIRTS WHEN YOU GO HERE, because you might suffer from a couple of mosquito bites.
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| We succumbed to the lure of some crepe. |
Love Always,
Nicole ♡
