Asakusa, Sensoji Shrine

こんにちわ！

So this weekends adventure took me to Asakusa, home of a large Buddhist shrine and of course, an even larger shrine of consumerism. As it should be? Who knows. All I know is that it was awesome.

So first of all, Friday evening and Saturday I was useless. I caught some 24 hour bug, and ended up sleeping off a fever for 16 hours Friday night. Needless to say I had some funky dreams. It was all good though, because I didn't have class, or anything to do but chill in my room and study for my test on Monday (today). So chill I did (relatively speaking given the ever constant weather).

Sunday morning, I got up (very rested after the previous nights immense amount of sleep), hopped on the computer and chatted with Nan and Geetz on skype (my grandparents for those I haven't told the story to). It was lovely, but I soon had to get off to get ready for my solitary trip to Asakusa. I was informed moments later that we were going to meet at 4, not 2, because a couple people were held up on a previous trip. So at 2:10ish I headed out. At 2:13, after having not reached the bus in time, I realized I forgot my camera and went back. I finally got on the next bus (which was only about 15 minutes later) and headed to Mitaka station. Took the Chuo line to Kanda, the Ginza subway line to Asakusa, and then the fun began.

I ended up wandering quite a bit to find Sensoji, or more specifically the huge lantern we were to meet at (and I mean HUGE check out the pics. Dude.), called Kaminarimon. Well after asking about 4 people Sumimasen, Sensoji wa doko desu ka? (Excuse me, where is Sensoji?), I finally stumbled upon it. Hard to miss really. I was sitting there for about 10 minutes getting anxious (I had gotten there exactly at 4), when Ken showed up. He was one of the group. We sat together for another half hour before by using cell phones we realized there were 2 big lanterns. We were at the right one, but the others were at the inner one.

So we finally started exploring. I got a fortune at the shrine. It ws bad and said all sorts of stuff about how the sick person is in danger and the lost item will not be found. Apparently it is also bad for me to marry or employ. It was hilarious. We moved on and wafted the incense over our heads to promote health, took some pictures, and stared to explore the shops.

There was this street of shops all down the line from the one gate (lantern) to the other. I unfortunately did not plan well and forgot to get money from the ATM at ICU when I could, so I had only enought to got to Asakusa and back with a drink. I had to borrow money for dinner. It's alright thoug, I've already planned a trip back this Thursday with some different friends. I'll buy stuff then.

Tomorrow I have a one-on-one meeting with Kojima-sensei, and Wednesday I eat soba noodles and make my own soba noodle bowl. Thursday is Asakusa again and Friday who knows! Lot's of stuff.

Almost forgot! Today there was Rakugo, which means traditional Japanese comedy. Basically two ICU clubs performed. One was a music club playing I think Koto's. Kinda like large floor guitars. It was lovely. Then there was a girl who sat on a table and told a few humorous stories using only a fan and a cloth to help tell the story. Since the videos are too large for flickr, I'm putting them on my YouTube account at http://www.youtube.com/user/himurasarah. They'll take a couple hours to uplaod, but be patient, they're pretty cool.

So yeah, thats it for now. Probably update after Wednesdays expedition.

さようなら！！