Tokyo Day 3

Woke up early and took the subway down to Asakusa to visit the Sensō-ji Temple, also known as Asakusa Kannon Temple. It is one of Tokyo's most colourful and popular temple. It is also Tokyo's oldest temple, and one of its most significant.

Kaminarimon Gate

When approaching the temple, you'll be able to see the Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate), which is decorated with a big lantern in the middle and statues by the side. It is the outer gate of Sensoji Temple and also the symbol of Asakusa.

Symbol of Asakusa

Nakamise Shopping Street

 Between the first and second entrance gate before the temple, there is a 200m shopping street called Nakamise which sells a lot of souvenirs and local traditional snacks. The price of the items sold there are quite pricey as it is mainly targeted at tourist.

The second entrance gate

After walking through the 200m shopping street and passing these two entrance gate, you'll be able to see the temple.

After walking through the gate, you'll be able to see the temple's main hall and this five storey pagoda.

Tying my bad lot for remediation

Around the temple you can pray and draw divination sticks. All you have to do is drop 100 Yen and make a wish before drawing a divination stick. There are explanations for each lot beside and all lots are written in Japanese, English and Chinese. As we were roaming around, we saw some people tying their lots on this board and we were curious about their actions. Luckily we managed to meet a primary school teacher there and he explained to us that if we were to get a bad lot (不吉/下签) then you can tie your lot on this board so that it will not come true. If you got a good lot then you should keep it so that you can bring the good luck back!

Skytree Tower

 If you have the time or wants to enjoy the whole Tokyo scenery, you can visit the Tokyo Skytree which is just a short walk from the temple. We had plans for other programs hence we gave it a miss. (Do leave a comment and let me know how was the experience if you guys have been there before!)

We randomly stopped by a restaurant that serves sushi on a conveyer belt which apparently is a form of fast food sushi and is very common in Japan. We had a few plates of sushi and sashimi before resuming our shopping.

A picture speaks a thousand words

 After leaving Asakusa, we then took the subway down to Ueno to visit the Ameya-Yokochō market. Ameya-Yokocho is an open-air market next to Ueno station which sells fresh fruits, dried food, clothes, bags, cosmetics etc. It is a long stretch of shopping street and is very packed with people even on a normal day.

Look how huge their fruits are!!

And huge fresh seafood!

 There's many stores along the street that sells delicious food! We couldn't resist temptations and sat down at one of the stores and had some fresh seafood.

Octopus Balls

 After finishing eating and shopping at Ameya-Yokochō, we then head down to Akihabara where it is an area famous for its many electronic malls. Once you walk out of the station, you'll be surrounded by many tall shopping malls and all kinds of gadgets and electronic items. We started walking around to search for cheap deals and accessories for our gadgets and finally stopped for dinner after 3 hours in the malls.

At the top floor of Yodobashi-Akiba, it is filled with lots of restaurants and food stalls. Unfortunately we clashed into their rush hours where people just ended their work and are out for dinner. Hence everywhere was soo packed and waiting time is super long. We managed to get seats at Chabuton and quickly sat down and ordered our food.

Extra Spicy Seafood Tomyum Ramen

Gyozas!

Was pretty satisfied with the food as it really tasted quite nice and is very affordable! After filling our stomach, we then finally ended our day and took the subway back to hotel and had a good onsen in the hotel before crashing into bed!