Asakusa

You must, you really must go to Asakusa, said Freyja to me.  You'll really, really like it.

So on Sunday, after Lindsey and Ian had lobbed in from Melbourne, we hopped on the subway and took ourselves off to find out why Freyja was so insistent. (She and Simon didn't come - they had gone off with Austin, Christian and Ant; Jess, Emily and Cassie had wandered off elsewhere). We contacted Theo and Judy who decided that they too would come to Asakusa.

And wat there was in Asakusa was a large market full of craft type things and tourist tack and other fun things to play with.  What else there was in Asakusa was a large Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple. There were also a very large number of people in the market, and in the shrine, inhaling smoke and lighting incense sticks and making votive offerings, and in the temple praying.  It was noticeable just how very well dressed all the young people were, and how devout they were being. We were neither smartly dressed nor being especially devout!

Ian found us a lovely little restaurant off a side lane for lunch. We went for a nice walk along the river and counted bridges. We bought little things to take home. and Freyja was absolutely right.  I did really really like Asakusa.

We went back to our hotels for a little rest, and then reconvened in Shibuya, by the dogs, to meet the girls.  We got lost :-S  It took AGES to find the dogs.  Then we lost Emily. She had somehow found herself in a large supermarket and couldn't escape from its foodie clutches. Finally we were all together and made our way to Shinjuku to find the boys and Freyja.

We've gone to the dogs in Shibuya

Ian was very keen that we should visit a Turkish restaurant that he, Austin and Kaori had been to once. Could we find it? Could we heck.  Austin and Ant had gone for a reccie but had no joy.  So we walked into the first restaurant that looked as though it might be willing to host an entirely unexpected raiding party of 14 and were shown upstairs to two booths (youngsters that way please) where we ate lots of food and drank lots of wine. It was a good evening.

I woke up on Sunday morning to Facebook telling me that there had been an earthquake of 6.9 in Tokyo at 3:30. It had woken most of us, in our various hostelries, up. The Builder and I had slept right through it, entirely undisturbed. So, it seemed, had Theo.  But it can't have been a collective hallucination - it was reported in the Melbourne Age!