Then you see the code for the one you want and go to a vending machine, where you place your money and it spits out a ticket with your order. You give the order to the cooks and they make it for you right there. ^^ It took a while to figure out (by which I mean I stood there awkwardly until one of the cooks finally explained the system to me), but afterwards I got a fast yummy meal. ^^ Then it was off to find Nakamise Shopping Street, which supposedly is the place to go for Japanese sweets.
Displays of spun-sugar sushi and other assorted cute things let me know I was getting close. Strangely enough, a Japanese lady and her little 2-year old daughter asked me for directions. O_o I didn't know I blended in that well.... I also met some tourists (girls that looks like they were in high school), who were visiting a friend here. When they asked what I was doing here alone for 3 months and I said I was working on Japan Fashion Week, they were like "Whoa! Are you a designer or something?" which was kind of funny. I'm kind used to getting impressed reactions (::cough::school::cough::), but this was a different kind of impressed and it was nice. Like, without the whole "I secretly hate you a little, smarty-nerdy-pants who will probably make more than me someday" undertone to it.
And here's a big red gate! With a HUUGE paper lantern. I think I found it.
Ah-ha! Found it! Nakamise Street! Home to innumerable shops selling traditional Japanese souvenirs and treats.
A rack of yukata! These are summer kimonos, basically just pretty robes, and are the afforable version of kimono (which are like, in the thousands... yukata can be about $30)
Traditional-looking street off-shooting from the candy district.
A store full of Japanese treats. ^_^
Including Hello Kitty shaped red-bean sponge-cakes!! I loooove red bean. This photograph here though is a plastic food model though, hence the cross-section so you can see what's inside.
More red bean cakes!!!!! I want to buy this whole store.....
And a close-up of one of the cakes, and entire CAKE of red bean paste.... ok, I'll stop drooling not. And no, that's NOT a Nazi sign (even though Japan was an Axis power), it's a Buddhist sign, that means something like 'well-being,' and is part of the word root of the Thai greeting "sawasdee" means sort of has the same meaning as "aloha." It's also used in Japanese maps to denote Buddhist temples. Hitler took this symbol and inverted it slightly to use as the Nazi symbol. Kinda like satanists invert the Christian cross or Wiccan pentagram to use as their symbols.
And here's the guy making all the red bean cakes! The azuki paste is already formed into little cakes, and he pours batter into those little irons, puts the cakes in, pours more batter, and sets it on the coals. Fresh!
And this is a cute paper fan with probably the most famous piece of Asian art in the United States, The Wave by Hokusai. It was another thing I had to memorize for my art class - this was one of the images from Hokusai's famous "36 views of Mt. Fuji," series of woodblock prints. The series contained a bunch of different views of Mt. Fuji, usually images of daily life with Mt. Fuji just kind of chillin' in the background.
And here is a shop selling.... I'm not quite sure what, but they were delicious. Little balls of dough, about the size of marbles, on a stick and dipped in yummy and vaguely sweet powder. A note on their aprons since I'm supposed to be studying Japanese fashion here - the red strapped aprons are specially designed to hold back the long sleeves of a kimono when doing household work. You usually don't see them very often, since women rarely wear kimono/yukata to do household chores, but they appear in anime a lot, and in Asakusa too apparently. ^^
And here's the lady making my order!
I ended up buying a package, as well as some of their sweet green tea, which was refreshing on a hot day. I still don't know what they are called, but I'm gonna venture a guess that they're at least related to Odango, because of the moon-bunny on all their packaging.
And here's what it looks like up close! There were six of these in the bag, but you can't really see the balls since they're so covered in powder....
From there it was on to Senso-ji, which was just at the end of Nakamise Street. They say that if you see only one temple in Tokyo, to see this one (which isn't really saying much, since Kyoto's the place to go for temples, not Tokyo... but I digress). Anyway, this is the main gate from the shopping street to the temple complex.
A close-up of one of the big side-lanterns.
And matching doors!
The backside of the main gate.
A crash course in Buddhist temple architecture: temples are usually complexes of several buildings, typically arranged in some sort of rectangular shape and enclosed by a wall, with a large imposing gate at its main entrance. Inside you can find buildings like pagodas, monasteries, and halls serving various purposes such as schooling or housing Buddhist art. There are also often gardens, and the various positions of the buildings have evolved over time with changing trends in Buddhism.
This here is a nice view of the pagoda, which sits off the the side of the gate here. It's the Japanese version of the stupa, an Indian Buddhist burial mound, but in Japan usually houses sacred relics at its base. The thing at the top has some deep symbolic meaning, but I forgot what it is...
Lining the walkway up to the main alter are fortune things. Forgive me for not coming up with a better name. Anyway, a nice Australian lady explained to me that you put a coin in the donation box, then shake this cylindrical can (you can see one in the back ground here), which has a tiny hole at the top that one stick can slide out of. You get a stick out, and it has a number written on it. You find the drawer in the wall with the corresponding number and take out your fortune, which thankfully was written in English. If the fortune is good, you keep it with you, and if it's bad you tie it to one of these racks here. I forgot what my fortune said, but I'll post it up here once I find it again.
This was some well-thing that people were drinking out of. I'm not sure why, but it was really hot, so I drank some too. ^^
And the huge incense stand right in front of the main temple. You can kind of see it in the picture - people were fanning the smoke towards themselves and muttering in Japanese. I learned later that you're supposed to bring the smoke towards you and it means good health. ^^
And finally, the steps up to the main alter, with another huge lantern above it. I don't think I was actually allowed to take pictures of the alter, since people were actually praying stuff, so it's be a little disrespectful, but it was really pretty. They had more fortune teller things inside, and a small gift-shop where you can buy good luck charms. Also, the main alter (which was protected behind a screen) had all sorts of people golden statues and such. Along with flowers, there were also offerings of what looked like oranges to me, stacked up in nice pyramids. ^_^
After looking at the main temple, I wandered around a bit to see the smaller buildings and such. Again, I couldn't take pictures of the inside, but the outside I could.
This looks almost exactly like the statues outside of Yenching Library....
There were also cute gardens/statues/graveyard type green areas around the temple area. Here's a cute little bridge. ^_^
And the stream that runs under it.
The grave of a famous Tanka poet. My Japanese teacher told me that graves don't have the 'creepy' connotation here that they have in the West, and so there were kids running around and stuff.
Grave of some activist that helped a lot of people. Sorry I couldn't remember more. -_-;;
I don't know whose grave this is, but it's nice.
There were a ton of kids in school uniforms around, and since we don't have the anime-esque sailor uniforms in the states, and these particular ones looked very anime-ish, I asked if I could get a picture. I think they thought I was a little weird, cause I was taking pictures of everything, but two girls posed, and some random old man jumped in at the last second, and then continued on his way. O_o In the background you can see a rickshaw driver (the guy in the short shorts) kind of laughing at the little tourist, and he then offered to take a picture of me, since I had pictures of everything BUT me, really.
Yay, a proper photo!
And that was my morning/early afternoon in Asakusa! I later headed over to Shibuya for some commercialism run amazingly amok, but that will be its own entry.
On a business-type note, I'll be leaving early in the morning tomorrow for Osaka to activate my rail pass and begin my tour of Japan. Since I'll be traveling around, I probably won't have the means to update this thing/upload pictures from my computer to the internet, hence you might not hear from me for about a week. Rest assured that I'm having fun seeing the temples in Kyoto, climbing Mt. Fuji, or relaxing in a hot spring spa in Hakone. ^^ I'm sure the backlog of photos will make up for the dryness of work, since I probably won't be allowed to post pictures on the internet before the runway show.
See you in a week!
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