(´∀｀) Asakusa Date!

   My Boyfriend has always known that every time I come to Japan with Friends, that I will usually stay in Asakusa. It's cheaper than finding a place, say in the middle of Tokyo, plus the area of Asakusa is amazingly beautiful too! There are multiple things within walking distance of one another, so you don't spend much money on transport at all!

   So during a holiday, we decided to go to Asakusa for the day! We first headed to Sensoji (浅草寺). Which is also known commonly as "Asakusa Kannon Temple". I thought that because my Boyfriend is Japanese, that he'd just shrug off the temple, having seen probably many in his lifetime anyway? But he was actually amazed and took plenty of photos to remember the day.  We went for conveyor belt sushi, or くるくる寿司! Haha. It's delicious and my Boyfriend introduced me to engawa sushi previously and it's so tasty! I really recommend it for people who wanna try something different but are not too daring to try ika or tako.

   I have continuously pointed out to him during my stays "Look! Tokyo Sky tree!" when watching TV. So now seeing it in person (in the distance) was even more surreal for him. So we decided to walk our way there. Mainly because we wanted to see more, and our feet weren't hurting yet. It was a pretty easy walk to be honest - so if anyone tells you to use public transport, don't! If you can see the tower, just keep walking towards it! It is not hard to miss.

 

  The Tokyo Sky Tree is absolutely amazing inside, much like other tower views I seem to have a habit of visiting while in Japan? Sunshine City? Yokohama Sky Garden? Now Tokyo Sky Tree. Surprisingly, I have never visited Tokyo Tower, yet. I will write another blog at a later date with more photos from up inside Tokyo Tower.

(★ω★。) Tokyo ・ March 2012 ・ PT1

So there was a little hiatus from me due to the fact I was travelling to Tokyo for my third time! I hadn't told many people due to personal reasons. So I apologise now to those who were unaware. Anyway I left home on the 7th March and arrived in Tokyo on the 8th. Travelling alone is actually rather peaceful and enjoyable since I was able to do things at my own pace. (☆´ω｀)ﾉ
Arriving at Narita, I accidentally returned my suica card and got "lost" - the only reason lost is in quotations is because I was never lost, I just never seemed to trust my first judgement and swore I was on the wrong train at least a dozen times. Haha, but Japanese residence are Friendly enough to help - despite the fact I was getting; 'sorry' and 'excuse me' all mixed up.

☆ Of course I stayed in Asakusa, it's the only place I know well enough to travel to alone. I stayed in the original hostel I stayed in during my first trip, here the Staff are very Friendly, and when I checked in for my first night, the Guy was asking if I had stayed before since I looked familiar. Totally wasn't sure how to respond. For the first night it was spent alone - my flight would have been £250 more if I was to fly with my Friend, Juu, so I agreed to meet her on the blue bridge. (ﾉ￣Д￣)ﾉ~ミ☆ Though the weather in Tokyo was terrible and raining, though Japan has an amazing 'umbrella system' so you always have an umbrella close by!

(*´･ω･人･ω･`*) When my Friend finally arrived - after at least four hours of walking too and from the hostel and bridge, in the rain which resulted in completely soaked socks, we got our room and freshened up before heading on straight out towards Shibuya. If I remember correctly, we went to meet Juu's Friend in order to receive some concert tickets, and then we all went for food! I was really hungry. (ノд・｀)

 

Afterwards we returned to the hostel, expecting my Friends would have serious jetlag and needed to sleep, but we didn't sleep until almost 2am and we had a - sort of - early rise the next day for a concert. ヽ(´◇｀)ﾉ

These blogs will be pretty choppy - I never manage to blog fully about my trips, well - it's always started but never continued to complete them! Please look forward to them, since the trip was shorter than my previous I am hoping to fit one or two days into one blog post! Right now I am pretty jet lagged and sleeping at the wrong hours. I woke at 5am so I am ALMOST sleeping correctly, just got to stop sleeping at 4pm till midnight UK time. (4pm GMT = 1am JPT) Enjoy my future posts, please!

(*´ω｀*) Places: #4 Asakusa

Asakusa

浅草

Asakusa was probably the last of all places that you expected to be reading about here, right? "What is this 'Asakusa'?" (｡･ω･)ﾉﾞ So, for those interested in History, Japanese Shrines and Temples, then Asakusa is definitely a spot to put on your map! I will admit, the first time I travelled to Tokyo, the only reason I stayed in Asakusa was due to it being cheapest at the time. (The second cheapest Hostel was in Akihabara, but saving money would have been disastrous then. ) Asakusa is home to the Senso-ji temple/金龍山浅草寺, and is Tokyo's oldest temple. Close to the temple is Asakusa shrine also, it is known as "Sanja-sama" - Shrine of the Three Gods, so you can see how popular this place is to tourism. (Please visit the supplied link for further information!)  
So why do I keep returning to Asakusa? ヾ(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ Along with the cheapness of Hostels, I am now familiar with the city and feel at most ease with such a quiet and peaceful place, and I always find something new to see!

Inside the temple area you will find yourself suddenly within a market known as 'Nakamise' it is over 200 meters and you are more than likely bound to get lost in awe with the traditional souvenirs, food and sweets! (◎ω◎*)~ The shopping street alone has history of over several centuries, and it is still running strong today! So Nakamise is definitely the place to go and buy all your souvenirs and gifts! If ever you plan to visit Tokyo during the New Year, I really recommend coming to the temple for it's lively bustling vibe, great street food and such an amazing aura to be around! (σ・ω・)σ Of course yes, like most places in Tokyo, there is also an arcade or five dotted around variously! Fun for all the Family!

☆ Asakusa has a lot of famous landmarks. In the above picture there are two already - or possibly three!? The bridges itself are rather well known - it's a good guide to where you are in Asakusa, if you are finding difficulty in locating a place, just make note of which bridge it is closer to, then the locals will exclaim rather loudly, 'Ah! Blue bridge!' and point you in direction, trust me, it is not hard to miss these four lane bridges for transport. The river you see is called Sumida river where available boat trips are ready for anyone! ヾ(ﾟ∇ﾟ*)≡=3

Another very popular landmark in the above photo is the Asahi Beer Hall building - can you guess which one it is? The 'Asahi flame' is often referred to as "golden turd" kin no unko/ 金のうんこ due to it's strange shape, and that isn't just the tourist giving it the unique name, actually the locals refer to it as the golden turd too! ♪ (〃∇〃)ﾉ The second landmark is possibly hard to spot in the above photo, on my two trips to Tokyo, the building was still incomplete and only now - to  my knowledge - it is fully complete!

That building is, the Tokyo Sky Tree/東京スカイツリー! Can you notice the difference? (despite my awful photography skills) (⊃ω⊂) The Tokyo Sky Tree is of course criticised for it becoming the 'New Tokyo Tower' and despite all it's criticism, it is now the tallest tower in the world! You can find the Sky Tree's progress in photos here @ Wikipedia and other information on the tower and the features.
So as you may have guessed already, Asakusa is a wonderful place to visit, either to stay or as a very long day trip. The city itself has a lot of traditional gift shops, restaurants and it is really a beautiful place. (つД｀) For budget travellers I would definitely and strongly recommend this place too, for days you want to save money but see amazing sights.