Well, we have come to the last day in Tokyo before heading to our next destination. For this day the weather had turned colder and although it didn’t rain, the sun was in short supply.
Taiko Drum Museum
Our first stop of the day was to a Taiko Drum Museum where we got to see a lot of different types of drums and were able to try the different ones out. It was fun and interesting however once the lecture part of the tour was over and the drums got to be tested out the noise got to be way too much for me and I hightailed it down to the shop. I bought Kevin some drumsticks made of magnolia wood as a souvenir.
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Asakusa Tourist Information Centre
From there we headed to the Tourist Information Centre where they have a lookout balcony and we were able to get some great birds eye views of the area. You could see the long corridor that lead to the Sensoji Buddist Temple. This corridor is bordered on both sides with many small shops you could see the hords of people that were making their way to the temple.
Sensoji Temple
Our last stop of the day was Sensoji Temple. It was Saturday and the place was thronged with people. It was really hard to keep together as a group so Karen and I finally told Yoshi we were heading out on our own as after the temple we had free time anyway.
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Shopping Asakusa District
After checking out the temple (as best we could through the crowds) we checked out some of the shops that were along the side streets of the temple. These were far less crowded and therefore much more fun. It was close to lunch so we found a little restaurant about 3 blocks from the temple that looked good. It was another tempura set meal and so good. As mentioned above it was really cold that day so that hot meal was really welcome. One of the shops we visited had different items for sale that were made with traditional Japanese fabrics. I was thrilled to find this beautiful quilt hanging on their wall.
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Ginza District
After our lunch, Karen and I decided to chance taking the subway to the Ginza District to find the Uniglo store there. Our next stop on our journey was up into the mountains and we had heard the temperatures were hitting 0C and they were getting snow. Neither Karen and I had packed for that cold of weather so were hoping to find either warmer jackets or thermal undershirts we could use to layer our clothing.
I know Karen took lots of pictures of Ginza however it would appear I didn’t. I can only think I was too cold to care, however, I did find a picture of the store from the Internet. This is the flagship store for Uniglo. Remember I said this was a Saturday, well on the weekends the Ginza District closes it’s streets to cars and I can see why! The district is one of the main shopping areas in Tokyo and the people!! If they didn’t close the streets to cars you literally wouldn’t have been able to walk anywhere as there were so many people.
As luck would have it we did finally find (on the seventh floor) the shirts we were looking for. We even found some extra warm thermal undershirts and boy did these come in handy on our next two cities we were visiting! It was an interesting experience but one I am not sure I would want to repeat on a regular basis.
Next up, we are heading into the mountains to the hot spring town of Hakone!
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