Japan Day 15

MainAsakusa is the one of the most popular tourists points in Japan. Situated in Asakusa is Nakamise Dori,  a open aired shopping arcade that stretches from Kaminiari mon to Sensoji temple. This a great location to be able to pick up Japanese Souvenirs.Asakusa

Asakusa was only  a short stop away from where we were now staying in Ueno, so it made sense to leave it till the send of the trip. You start of at Kaminarimon Gate and go through to Nakamise Dori. At the back of the gate were a large pair of straw sandals. The inscription read; This pair of huge traditional straw sandals are called “O-Waraji” had been made by 800 citizens of Murayama City in a month and devoted to Senso-ji. O-Waraji is made of straw and 2500 kilograms in weight, 4.5 meters high. They are the good charm against evils because they are the symbolic of the power “Ni-Ou”. Wishing for being goodwalkers, many people will touch this “O-waraji”.

FountainTo the right is an amazing fountain surrounded with dragons. People use the water to purify themselves before entering the temple. If you looked higher on the right side, you could see the newly finished Tokyo Sky Tree. We unfortunately did not make it there this trip, so its down as a definite for next time!

purchasesBeing our second to last day in Japan I was getting a little concerned about some of the gifts that I wanted to buy. Other than for Chris, I hadn’t really found anything else I thought might be suitable. Thankfully Nakamise Dori was a treasure trove for gifts and souvenirs. I found Kate, Chris’s mum a lovely sakura parasol, and his dad a beautiful metal wind Chime and wooden coasters. We found this adorable shop that sold clothing for dogs, they even had Kimono and Geisha wigs that you could put on your dog! I bought an adorable cowboy hat and a christmas hat for Puncho and Kiki my parents dogs. We were all drawn into a store that sold gorgeous Kanzashi (flower hair ornaments) I bought a Chrysanthemum Kanzashi, Leiticia bought little twin ones and Sharon also got one to go with her new Metamorphose Kimono JSK.

lunchAfter some successful finds in Asakusa we head for Nakano. Nakano Broadway is a great place to find games, figures, cosplay and anything really anime related. I think it is the next best shopping destination after Akihabara of course. Being midday the train was not busy, even so there were lots of carriages. From where I took this photo, I was not able to see the end of the carriages, it kept on going on and on. We stopped in the arcade running up to the shopping center. I had been to this place a couple of times and they make amazing Kareage (Sharon I can hear you re-correcting me!) It makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

NakanoNakano has three shops that sell animated cels, the orginal artwork that is used to make them. On my last two visits I spent a lot of money there, but with very little left in my wallet this time, I only picked up one of Chibi-Usa. I also found some metal pokemon badges and the latest Gothic lolita bible. It was great to be able to go into a news agency and actually but it at its original price. I was actually very surprised about the amount of mooks that were available.

That evening, we head home quite sad knowing that this was a last night in Japan!

 

♥ Alyssium♥

 

Continue on to Day 16

 

Go back to my previous visit to Japan 2 years ago.

 

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