Asakusa and the Train

Mai and I made plans to go visit Asakusa and Ueno which are in Tokyo. We asked a few people if they wanted to come and Mike, Hero, Ross and Kylie decided to come! It was a nice small group, I hadn't really gotten to know either Mike or Hiro so it was a good opportunity to do so.

Mai and I



Once we got to Asakusa we headed down the Nakamise-dōri which is a street on the approach to an ancient Buddhist temple and shrine of Sensō-ji. I did some shopping and took tons of pictures



Looking across the street to the entrance



Walking under



Under the entrance



This is one of two giant paper lantern's on the way to the shrine



Mai and I in the entrance of Nakamise-dōri



The group in front of Hōzōmon the second entrance on the way to the shrine



The pagoda of Sensō-ji















Me in front of the pagoda of Sensō-ji



Where you can wash before going into the shrine





Inside the shrine





Mai geting her fortune



The drawers filled with fortunes



Getting my fortune...



Me with my lucky fortune



The front..



The back



Ross Kylie and I with our fortune! I got the best fortune!! Kylie's was the worst and Ross's was bad... but not the worst a funny part his fortune said "three women should not talk together because they talk to much"



Buddhist Statue



Goofing around...





This is where we ate our lunch









Lunch!



Tofu!



This made me giggle... This was outside a Ramen shop :)



After Asakusa we hopped on a train to Ueno district and explored a bit... we walked through a really bust shopping area where we bought some snacks and did pirikura (a fun photo booth)









Walking around Ueno



Walking by the street











In Ueno Park














In front of some giant lilly pads at Shinobazu Pond





Mike and I



The street performer








The Ueno Station



The train.

I have ridden the train a lot, about 3 hours all together last week. I've really grown to love the train, with the amount of time I got to be on today I had a lot of time to think and process this trip so far. First off I really started to take in the scenery of life passing by outside my window, i hadn't really looked outside since my very first train ride after we landed in Japan for the first time. The movement of the train and the ebb and flow of the people coming in and out is something that I've gotten used to so today I slowed down and took notice of the swirl of life around me. When walking too and from different place and even while riding the train or monorail I tend to fall back in my mind and mentally shut down and just go through the motions like the 100's of people I pass by every day.

This is a video I took on the way back to the apartment



While I was standing there by the door between 4-5:50pm holing on the the white ring that hung from the ceiling of the train car I was thinking about some things that I realized while being here in Japan and some observations... First off I haven't seen one person that looks the same as another. Everyone here has their own unique look that I had not tuned into... I was standing there inside a very squished car watching people as they stood or sat as we rolled down the train tracks. The majority of the people there were reading small books in Japanese, or listening to their iPod. Since it was the end of the day I noticed a lot more people taking a nap as well. It got me to thinking about sleeping on the train.

On the way to Asakusa I had the grabbed the opportunity to take a nap on the train, we left about 9am in the morning after waking up at 6:30am. The train ride was 1 and 1/2 hours long with 3 changes. Closing my eyes again while standing there I felt again the sound and feeling of the tracks under my feet. I payed attention to the sway of the train as it turned and listed to the feet scuffle around me of people caught off balance. The sound of the train is my favorite part, it's strangely relaxing... The sound almost puts me in a trance and with the rocking of the train I can see why people fall asleep.

Looking out though the window is always my favorite part of the train ride, being up so high and getting to look out over the tops of the buildings is always fun. I'm so used to living in a city where I can see a full 350 above most buildings. Going to a place where I can't see anything behind the next building is so different. The tops of the houses look almost the same though the color is slightly different... Some green, tan, black and red... Another thing I noticed today was when the train coming from the opposite direction few by, my reflection on the window's of the other train would appear.... I think I will miss traveling on the train when I get back to America...



On the train....

Part 1


Part 2