the rest of the day

To recap my last post, I had gone to the Asakusa area of Tokyo, where I visited the Sensoji Temple. But that wasn't everything I experienced that day.
The Kaminarimon Gate is the entryway for the pedestrian street leading up to Sensoji Temple. There is a huge lantern hanging from the gate that is not only huge, but weighs almost 1500 lbs.
Once you cross underneath that, you are on Nakamise Street. This is open only to pedestrians and is lined with small shops selling anything from souvenirs, to food, to traditional Japanese handicrafts.
I spent much time looking around this area. Some of the booths even had people working in them to demonstrate their craft. There were several painters and men that did wood block prints. But the one thing that really caught my eye was a dollmaker. I remember the Japanese dolls that had porcelain faces and traditional dress.

My mother has several signed woodblock prints from Japan. They are quite intriquing. One of them is called (correct me if I am wrong Mama)" The DollMaker". Probably only my parents and my sister will appreciate this photo I took, but it reminds me of the print.
The dolls actually started out with wooden templates
then the ceramic and the final product.


It was great fun to see some people walking around in traditional dress.



And I enjoyed some noodles for lunch at a little outside booth.




Besides the temple that I had talked about earlier, there are various other structures on the ground.
At the end of Nakamise Street, there is another gate called Hozomon Gate.



The tour guide the next day told me that this is a giant replica of shoes that monks wear in Japan.







There is also a 5 storied pagoda. There was some sort of fall chrysanthemum exhibition going on with some unbelievably large
and different blooms.

There were many statues to be seen
- mainly with some sort of attire?








And various shrines.
So you can see that I spent alot of time here. The next day, I was here briefly with an organized tour - I was so glad that I was able to spend more time that first day at my leisure.

The area around the temple also houses many shops and restaurants.
Walking around the streets was totally different than all the neon and signage you normally see. One street I did make an effort to find was Kappabashi Street. On this street is a one kilometer stretch that sells restaurant supplies. I am not in the market to open a sushi bar or anything, but this was really fun for me. Some stores sell only pans, some sell the fake food that they use to advertise the menu, and this one sold teapots, tea cups, rice bowls and anything ceramic. This photo doesn't do it justice - this is only one aisle of the endless cavern of pottery.

I would have liked to tell you that I met Bill Murray for a drink at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, like in the movie, Lost in Translation. But after my long and full day, I stopped at a grocery store in the subway by my hotel - picked up an apple, cheese and crackers for dinner in my room - and crashed.