Temples and Parks
Today felt like I had finally gotten my groove. I had made a plan of what to do for the day, I ate a nice breakfast at Dean and Deluca (other breakfast options were not so good), I bought a subway pass, I got cash, I bought disposable masks, and I made it to my first stop with ease.
I went to the Asakusa area to see a very important temple called Sensoji Temple. It was jammed with people. Maybe it’s always jammed but when you add the fleeting days of peak cherry blossoms, it was a scene. The walkway to the temple was lined with tourist shops and food stalls selling very popular-looking sweets. There were lots of things on skewers.
I had no choice but to shuffle with the masses toward the temple, but it was actually charming watching the locals and tourists enjoying the first sun in days. I instantly had too many clothes on. The first stop near the temple is to get your fortune. You drop 100 yen into a slot (maybe that’s worth a dime), then shake a long metal box and pop a stick out of a small hole. It’s a little like getting a toothpick out of a dispenser. The stick has a number on it, which you have to ask someone what it says, then you pull out a drawer corresponding to the number on your stick. I got bad fortune! It read something like “when three women get together they will talk too loudly”. I had to fold it up and tie it to a rack. I tried again! I got another bad fortune so I gave up. Very silly fun.
Next was the big smoker where you wave some of the smoke from a giant incense burner onto your body. Then at the temple steps you bow twice, clap twice, say a prayer, then bow once. My food tour guide showed us how to do this process. I made my way up to the temple altar to see the gods inside and took some more photos, mostly of peoples’ heads.
Next, I went to the adjacent Sumida river park to see more cherry blossoms. It was lovely. There was an option of taking a riverboat ride here, but I was happy just enjoying the river in the shade of a freeway.
Hours had passed by now since that quiche lorraine so I started looking for food. It was so crowded and there were lines for every restaurant. People were moving so slowly because there were people who had rented dress-up kimonos there to have their photos taken. It’s a thing to do and I am planning on doing it in Kyoto next week.
I used Google Maps as usual to help me figure out my next stop and hopped on the subway. Hopped on as in: walk this way, realize I’ve gone the wrong way, turn around, walk about half a mile in the underground hallways looking for my platform, then wait for the train, then ride 8 stops and appear somewhere I’ve never been before looking for lunch.
I was right across from the Imperial Gardens and next to the Museum of Modern Art. Absolutely perfect place for my next destination. But first I found lunch in a sort of food court at the bottom of an office building. I ate at a good Indian restaurant and met an American who had been living in Tokyo for 30 years.
Next, I used my Tokyo Museum Pass and entered the Museum of Modern Art. It was wonderful. Beautiful, interesting art, and well-curated in a not-too-big space. Plus, they had chairs and tatami mat bench thing that came in handy because I was already 6 miles or so into my walking day and I was footsore.
Then I walked up a huge flight of stairs to go over a pedestrian bridge and into the grounds of the imperial palace. The place is really old. It was originally from the Edo period. I don’t know a ton about Japan’s history but it involved a lot of violence and emperors, so castles with large moats and thick stone walls seemed helpful.
I’m not sure I could have ever gotten in good enough walking shape to do this trip. I was getting really tired and made my way back across essentially 5 cities to my hotel.
I collapsed on my bed for an hour and then went downstairs to one of the 20 restaurants in my hotel/movie theatre/shopping area to eat shabu-shabu. They basically give you your food raw and you cook it on a hot plate in front of you. I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t like it much. I did eat some broccoli, carrots, and two slices of what I thought were sweet potatoes. It seems hard to eat healthy foods when you are a tourist anywhere.
Back in my room, I showered, washed my clothes in the bathtub, and got ready for the next day, which starts with a tour of the massive Tokyo fish markets. I’m looking forward to the freshest sushi of my life. And probably getting grossed out. And hopefully, I won’t catch a new, novel virus that starts a global pandemic like in Wuhan.
