Yesterday Beth and I visited Asakusa in northern Tokyo. This area is supposed to be Tokyo at its most traditional full of surviving craft shops etc. and its Buddhist temple Senso-Ji, the oldest temple in Tokyo, is visited by 20 million worshippers each year. We started at a magnificant red lacquer gate with a huge lantern, guarded by the god of thunder and the god of wind (of course!), and made our way along a street called Nakamise which was crammed with stalls selling Japanese sweets, rice crackers and souvenirs. We liked it because nobody gave you the hard sell, like they did in Goa for example, but when you expressed an interest in something they were really helpful. I didnt fare very well standing in line to buy some Japanese sweets, if you didnt speak up then the next person just moved past you. I stood there for ages missing my place in the queue (which doesnt happen to me very often I must say!) but eventually tried out some kind of green tea bean curd jam thingy dipped in floury stuff. It was fairly unappetising. A bit further along I tried a fried bun with bean curd and jam which was largely the same thing but fried and hot and much nicer. Bit like a donut.

At the end of the street through another amazing giant gate we came across a big bronze cauldron, full of incense with crowds breathing in the smoke ad wafting it all over themselves. Its supposed to be the breath of the gods and if you direct the smoke to a part of your body thats injured its supposed to cure it. Heres hoping! Beth found a kind of holy water ritual thing which involved drinking some sacred water from a shared fountain. Dont know about that, wasnt willing to risk the lurgy!! Then we went into the Senso-Ji temple itself and it was really lovely. Ive seen loads of Buddhist temples in my time but never one like this. I loved the red colour, very evocative. We watched people lighting candles and throwing coins into a well, lighting incense, all the usual stuff. And a new one which Id read about where you shake a container full of sticks until one drops out. It has a number on it which corresponds to a drawer in a cupboard which you open and take out a slip of paper which tells your fortune. We watched some girls doing it and they were nice enough to help us translate the numbers. First the girl, then Beth drew bad fortune- oh no!! She didnt seem to perturbed, I know I wouldve been! Luckily for me I drew good fortune and Im keeping the slip of paper with me because its promising a lot of good things!

At the Asakusajinja shrine we were lucky enough to see a Japanese wedding party pull up for photographs. The bride's hair was amazing!! The whole area of the Senso-Ji Temple is lovely actually, I really liked it. When I picture emperors and nobles and cortesans of that time (I read about all that mulch all the time!), I picture them in a place like this. There was a magnificant pagoda, also in red and lots of other buildings and shrines, all matching in gardens with carp filled ponds and bridges and of course the cherry blossom Very lovely indeed.

For lunch we ate from some stalls within the temple complex. I had some kind of octopus in balls of egg batter type stuff and Ill eat anything really but these were just a bit too 'different' on the taste buds. Didnt really like it. Still ate 5, dont get me wrong...

The area nearby was choc-full of amusement arcades. We went into a few to gape in wonder. They really are something else. The people in there seem to have been sitting there forever, they have ammassed so many coins. They are just nochalently tapping the buttons amidst this deafening noise and coins are just pouring into the trays below even though they dont seem to be getting it right!! One hall that we went to you won metal balls instead of coins (which presumably you trade up later, we couldnt figure it out) and people had literally stacks of trays full of metal balls piled high around them. Theyd obviously been there for days. And it was so loud in there, and so neon. You'd go mad, surely.

We walked (a fairly long way, up Kappabashi street, and got a wee bit lost) to Ueno to visit the Tokyo National Museum. There are loads of museums around here, plenty to come back and do. We only did one floor of one building of the museum we went to before admitting defeat at about 6pm! The exhibition we saw was called 'Highlights of Japanese Art' and I feel like we really lucked out to randomly find such a good exhibition with stuff that Im really interested in. So this exhibition had really great examples of calligraphy, ink paintings on scrolls and screens, waka poetry, kimono, costumes from Kabuki and Noh plays, all the stuff that fascinates me the most about Japan. And I was pleased because the poetry and the screen painting etc were all from the eras that the book im reading now is set in, mentioned the Tales of Genji and Ive read that!! OK so Im aware that im sounding like a dork now. Closet Japanese Arts fan now out of the closet..

Fairly knackered at this point (Beth went to bed) but I wanted to go out in Shibyua. We were 3 Brits, an american, a canadian and a french person. A good group apart from the french person obviously. I didnt write that.

First stop in Shibuya was a yakitora restaurant that Daniel, the guy from California, had been to the night before. It was totally Japanese speaking but he managed to order for the group anyway. The beers came out and they were the biggest beers that I have seen in my life. I kid you not. I was very happy. Then the food came and we had yaki soba noodles which were awesome and some skewers; chicken, pork balls and chicken skin. I have to say the chicken skin ones were the best. Really really good in fact. Thats bad isnt it. Tried some sake. Its pretty gross, I had it hot which I think was a mistake. It was so nice to be in a restaurant full of locals and we were so obviously tourists but we didnt feel out of place or like we were an inconvenience. It was the type of restaurant where you sit on the floor on mats at low tables. It was a really good meal.

Now this part is bad, I admit it. Kevin the canadian, typical, as he was leaving, stole a bottle of shochu. A whole bottle. Stole it. Very stupid as I would think stealing in Japan attracts hand chopping off or something. Bad Kevin. A little way off from the restaurant we were consuming said steal when the restaurant lady charged up to us (I thought we were busted) because someone had forgotton their wallet. Japanese people nice and honest; us - horrible scumbags. Anyway she hadnt noticed and I still have both hands. This part isnt so good either. We drank it sitting in a circle, smack bang in the middle of the pavement in inner-city Shibuya at that junction which is in the movie Lost in Translation (fantastic area btw). Had to do a drinking game cos man that stuff is gross. We acquired an 8th member of the gang, some random guy from Nepal who sat down with us. Then we went to a club, dont know where, dont know what but it was run by Africans and full of Africans. In there for a while, far too long actually, I was excited that Id negotiated discount on the beer (I do like a bargain), but the music wasnt all that so we left, eventually. After some excitable charging around in the streets, some really sweet Japanese people spent about 25 minutes helping us find the next club but they had a dress code there and our flip flops werent allowed in so we didnt go in either. Got a taxi back without any hassle. The French guy we left in town.