Sunday, November 05, 2006

Japan Day 4

Weather: Cloudy & Rainy towards evening
Places visited: Asakusa - Senso-ji Temple, Tokyo Edo Museum, Meiji Shrine & Harajuku

We met up with a colleague, Goshima-san, from the Japan branch as he had generously suggested that he bring us out on Sunday. He came to pick us up in his MPV equiped with GPS system. Seems like most Japanese relied on GPS to move about in Japan as their streets are really complicated.

How the GPS system looked like.

Our first stop is Asakusa, Senso-ji Temple, which is a temple that is reputated to be very 'accurate'. We tried out hands at drawing 'prediction lots'. Mine turned out to be a very good one! So I kept the slip of paper with me. My friend's lot didn't turn out to be good, so she had to leave it behind in the temple, to signify that she left the bad luck behind.

Front view of the temple.

Ursweetlullaby's and my lot. Relatively 'lucky' lots that we got to keep. It has English translation so we are able to understand what is written on it.

My roommate picked an unfavourable lot so she has to tie it to the bar and leave the 'bad luck' behind.

After that we went to the Tokyo Edo Museum to understand more about the history of Tokyo and then have lunch there. Gosh, the parking fee in Tokyo is atrocious! For the 2 hours that we were there, we had to pay about S$16! Goshima-san told us it's quite the 'norm'!

The first Subaru Car!

My delicious lunch at a restaurant in the Museum! The whitish stuff is not Chawamushi. It's some sticky potato sauce to be mixed and eaten with rice. Not my cup of tea!

We head towards Meiji Shrine after lunch. A Shrine is different from the Temple in the sense that it is more like an ancestral place. Most wedding ceremonies also take place in the Shrine. Children also visited the Shrine to get blessed at certain age, i.e boys at even numbers of age and girls at odd numbers. They will dress up until really pretty - both boys and girls!

Entrance to Meiji Shrine

Instead of 'asking' for a predictive 'lot' here, you get a wooden tablet like this and write your wishes on it. Presumably, it may come true.

And that's how many of such 'tablets' there are around......

We were also there in time to witness a wedding 'progression'.

After that, we all went excitedly to Harajuku, the place that we have been dying to see the Cosplay (Costume play). Basically, teenagers dressed up as anime characters or lolita-like dolls and parade around the bridge area. They will also pose for you to take photos. After half-an-hour there, it started to drizzle so we had to move off to the next destination: shopping at Harajuku.

So many interesting characters, had to put it in a collage so that you get to see more of it!

Night scene at Harajuku.

Labels: Japan, Trip

10:15 PM

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