Japan – Day 6

Today, we head back to Tokyo!  After we had all our luggage packed up in the morning, we left them in the hotel room and headed to the train station at the ground floor to book our Shinkansen tickets back to Tokyo.  We wanted to take the 1056hrs ride but it was full, so we got the 1156hrs ride instead.  With an extra hour, we took our breakfast and shopped at Isetan in the train complex before checking out from the hotel.  On our way to the Shinkansen platform, we bought lunch to munch on our ride to Tokyo.

We got a 130g pack of roasted chestnuts (AKA Gao Luck in Hokkien) for 530JPY.

 

Here comes our Shinkansen!

  

Lunch time!  3 varieties of dumplings and a pack of cold cream puff for Julian but Julian’s cream puff ended up on the floor instead… and Mummy feels guilty for dropping it.

  

These were the last 4 eye-catching candies we bought from Nara.  Although they tasted just like sugar, Julian loved them!  He would always hold it in his hands and bite off the green part first before putting the remaining candy into his mouth.  I think the sight of these colourful candies was just so appealing to him.

 

After lunch, we kept ourselves occupied… Julian and Joan colouring his book while I was downloading photos into the laptop.

  

Julian taking his nap during the 159 minutes Shinkansen ride…

 

and finally, we arrived at Shinagawa station!  Hooray!

  

We finally reached the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa after a 5 minutes walk from Shinagawa station.  5 minutes of pushing the luggage up the slope in the hot summer was enough to drench us in sweat!

 

When we approached the front desk at the lobby to do our check-in, we were told that our check-in would be done on Level 16 and the bellhop loaded up all our luggage and showed us the way.  Having paid 1000JPY more per night for a better room on The Club Floor that came with complimentary Internet access and complimentary breakfast, afternoon tea and evening drink at its lounge, we had our private check-in done at the lounge at Level 16.  It was the first time we had such pampering treatment at a hotel that made us feel like VIPs!

 

Our room on Level 15 was great!  It was just as big as the one we stayed in Hotel Granvia Kyoto but more business-like as they had a working desk in the room.

 

Another bathroom with a high-tech toilet bowl…

   and a view from the balcony.

 

Before we set off, we decided to pop by the lounge and have a drink and some Japanese snacks.  It was a great way to refresh ourselves before exploring Tokyo… especially when everything in the lounge is free-flow!

 

We headed back to Shinagawa Station for a train ride to Asakusa at about 5pm, where we would join about 10% of the Tokyo population (i.e. 1 million people) in Asakusa for the annual Sumida River Fireworks Festival!

 

As we walked through the streets of Asakusa, many roads were closed for the human traffic.  There were signs everywhere and fortunately, many signs were in Kanji so we could roughly figure out the directions given. For the first time, the weather felt really cool so heat was not a problem in the crowd.

 

Mingling with the crowds outside Senso-ji Temple with throngs of worshippers walking through the temple’s symbol, the Furai jin-mon (Gate of Wind God and Thunder God) adorned with a large red paper lantern that bears the inscription “Kaminari-mon” (Thunder Gate). .

  

Well, we didn’t understand a word from the policeman here.

 

Crowds sitting in designated areas to watch the fireworks display.  In Japan, people are allowed to “reserve their seats” by pasting their groundsheets on the floor with their names written on it 24 hours prior to the event.  They would then leave their groundsheets and return on the event day to occupy their “reserved seats”!

 

A view of Asahi Breweries Headquarters Building from Azuma Bridge over the Sumida River. The 22-storey Asahi Beer Tower with amber-colored glass windows and top frieze of white external walls captures the essence of a sudsy glass of beer. The adjoining Asahi Super Dry Hall was designed by the noted French designer Philippe Starck with the “Flaming Ornament” on the roof as a symbol of Asahi Breweries’ dynamic heart.

 

There was even a rooftop concert going on!

  

It was difficult to get a viewing spot.  The roads along Sumida River and all bridges across it were closed for safety reasons as fireworks were launched from floating platforms on the river.  The only places we could view them were at road intersections, which were full of people who reserved their places a day earlier.  Finally, we found a spot between 2 cars parked at an intersection.  We had a partially blocked view of the fireworks display but it was still better than no view.  :-)

     

But Julian was so tired that he dozed off while watching fireworks!  Considering how excited he was at first, he must have been really tired to doze off in the midst of the excitement!

  

Stalls selling Takoyaki!  Since we didn’t have enough of Takoyaki in Osaka, we bought another one again after the fireworks display.  But this time, it was a bigger version but just as delicious!

    

9pm… Asakusa was still buzzing with excitement with shops still open.  We headed for Nakamise Shopping Street in search of dinner.

  

Here, we found a shop selling handmade sweets called Kibi-dango Azuma.  They looked like miniature balls of mochi that came in sticks and coated with soybean flour.  They were really delicious with a sticky chewy texture that is firmer than mochi.

    

Nearby, we were attracted by the more Japanese desserts.  As we were not sure what they were, we bought one of each although queues of Japanese were buying them in boxes!  The yellow coloured dessert was a bar of tapioca and it was delicious!  We couldn’t say the same for the violet coloured dessert though.  It looked like a soft gelatin-like dessert but it was rather firm, dry and pasty inside, which tasted somewhat like red bean paste.  Joan took only a bite while I finished the rest, as usual.

  

As we continued searching for a dinner place, we were attracted by the sight of this restaurant with a chef making soba and a queue outside.  We joined the queue and after a short wait, we were shown to our table on the 2nd level.

  

We were delighted by the sight of our table as it was our first soba meal in traditional Japanese dining style.  We sat on tatami with a low table and ordered a hot soba with Ebi Tempura (i.e. Prawn Tempura) and a cold soba with Unagi Tempura (i.e. Eel Tempura).  We have never tasted cold soba before but since soba is the specialty of this restaurant, we decided to give it a go.  We were glad we did!  The restaurant also served us a tea pot of hot beverage without tea cups.  Not knowing what it was, we asked the staff by pointing to the tea pot.  The staff nodded her head and went off, coming back in a short moment with English explanations on a small piece of laminated paper.  Only then did we know that the tea pot contained water used for boiling the soba in preparation of the cold soba.  As soba is made from buckwheat, the water used for boiling soba contained the rich nutrients of soba.  To enjoy it, we simply pour the soba water into the small bowl of soba sauce (i.e. cold dipping sauce for cold soba) and drink it!  It tasted really good!  The meal was one of the best ones we had in Japan… truly memorable!

  

After dinner, we headed out onto the busy streets of Asakusa, where we had our final glimpse of the Furai jin-mon (Gate of Wind God and Thunder God) before heading back to the hotel.

That wrapped up our first day in Tokyo and our second consecutive day of fireworks display.

Tomorow, we shall head to Shibuya and Harajuku!

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