Japan Trip - Asakusa, Senso-ji and University of Tokyo

I know. I’ve been a lazy. In a life changing year of 2014 with extra dose of workload (a lot!), i fall asleep on my sofa right after dinner, EVERY night. So it’s no wonder that procrastination got the better of me and this Japan trip post took me over one year on and off to write. Good thing about Japan is tourism aspect rarely changes in Japan and at the very least, these posts won’t look so outdated, I hope.

Going to Japan without planning ahead is no fun. After roaming Tokyo aimlessly for 2 days, we finally have help from our friend, who’s been living in Tokyo for the last 4 years. The very first must-see place he brought us to is Asakusa.

The road leading to Senso-ji of Asakusa is filled with “turmoil”. We need to walk pass a street market with so many temptation that touches our purses.

Rice cakes that are better version of Wang Wang with many flavors to select from.

And suddenly, we heard a commotion because there was a filming going on in the area. Our friend told us that he is a famous actor and I thought he looks really familiar.

Mask for home decoration? Not for me. I bet they will be scary at night and the big white head reminds me of a monster from Inuyasha anime.

We gave way to Agemanju, a deep fried cake wth red bean fillings. I don’t hate it, but I certainly don’t love it.

It was hot sunny day but we finally arrived at Senso-ji. Unfortunately the bigger lantern was taken down for maintenance and we can only get to take picture with this lantern.

When the omikuji prediction is bad, it is a custom to tie it to a wire rack to transfer the bad luck away.

Omikuji, to predict one’s fortune.

The little hut that houses the stone statues worshiped by Japanese. I don’t know what were they called in Japanese but I’ll usually call them “Di Zzang”.

All of them were “scarfed” to protect them from the cold.

The funny building is none other than Asahi Beer’s headquarter. The golden tall building represents beer with white froth on top of it and most people like to call the building with the cloud shape on top as Asahi “poo-building”. We can understand why.

From Asakusa, we got a good view of Tokyo Tree, which we skipped going due to mixed reviews.

Charles brought us to Ameyoko, meaning America Street, which was a black market for American product after WWII. You’ll see many American military-like costume sold in this area.