Tokyo

Day 13 – Tokyo

Asakusa

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Today we went to Asukasa, only two subway stations away. Asukasa is the place to buy souvenirs and Japanese sweets so it’s a popular destination for tourists but also for locals. It’s also the place reputedly to buy Japanese knives and where you can get a scenic boat ride along the Suma river.

We browsed stalls and shops and did purchase souvenirs and other Japanese products including a knife, sharpening stone and cabbage slicer.

We had lunch at popular cafe and chose from food moulds in the window and a more limited English menu. I had a pork katsue set whilst Anthony had fried noodles with lots of cabbage!

we walked across the bridge to the other side of the river for excellent views of the Sky Tree and the Aashi building (home of Japanese beer). There are still many Cherry trees in blossom but many are past their prime. Cherry blossoms are so ephemeral and so are quite symbolic of the temporal nature of all life.

Decided that we should take advantage of our metro day pass so headed to the subway for the Edo line to Akabanebashi for Tokyo tower sky tree. The rain had started so lucky we had our raincoats. We didn’t go up the tower but had iced coffee and green tea latte at chain coffee shop and cinnamon scroll.

Back to the station, we strolled through what we thought was a little park but was in fact the gardens of a traditional tofu restaurant. The garden was beautiful with a bridge, a pond, a waterfall and lots of lovely trees.

	Asukasa [Map]		Stalls at Asukasa [Map]
	Shop with Japanese crafts [Map]		Anthony’s lunch at Asukasa [Map]
	Pork katsue set [Map]		Asukasa cafe [Map]
	Iconic view with Aashi building and Oshiage sky tr [Map]		Suma river [Map]
	Tokyo tower [Map]		Garden of Tokyo Shiba Toufuya Ukai [Map]
	Japanese cherry tree [Map]		Japanese knife shop [Map]