Day 3 - Tokyo - Asakusa

One more onigiri breakfast before we transfer to the tour. So far our onigiri count is Lisa 7, Jon 4. Guess Jon is more into pastries for breakfast than Lisa. Who knew?!

Today we transferred to the Walk Japan tour. This meant moving our luggage to the tour’s Tokyo hotel for the night.

After dropping off our luggage for storage at the tour hotel, we proceeded to Asakusa to see the Senso-ji Temple. Completed in 645, this buddhist temple, Tokyo's oldest, was built to honor Kannon, the bodhisattva of mercy. There are two giant sandals to either side of the entrance gate warning off evil spirits. The sandals are intended to represent the size of the Nio, temple guardians, which are protecting the temple. Inside the temple grounds, we each purchased our Omikuji (fortune). Omikuji are randomly drawn paper fortunes which have fortunes written on them ranging from Great Curse to Best Fortune. Lisa got the Best Fortune and Jon’s was Regular Fortune. Both are good as neither needs to be hung on a tree and burned to prevent bad fortune from falling upon us. We then cleansed ourselves with incense to ward off evil spirits, and made a donation to Kannon.

Ditching the tourists at the temple. We headed down a side street where we stopped at a matcha specialty shop. We settled on matcha cream puffs, matcha mochi, matcha latte with mochi, and matcha beer. We also sampled some dango - mochi rice balls dipped in sweet soy sauce. After this food adventure, we visited a Japanese wood block printing shop owned by an artist that Jon has been following on YouTube. We met the artist, Dave, who was lovely and charming and excited to know that we learned about him through his social media. Jon bought two prints and is having them shipped back to the United States.

Since we arrived we've been enjoying onigiri (rice balls with fillings) for breakfast. Switching things up, we decided to have some for lunch at a specialty onigiri restaurant in Asakusa Jon hunted up. This was both a good and bad idea. A good idea because it was amazing tasting rice wrapped around inventive, but traditional fillings. A bad idea because it's ruined us for onigiri possibly for the rest of our lives. Lisa's convinced she will always be seeking out this onigiri quality forever. In addition to onigiri featuring fillings such as fermented salmon roe, egg yolk and tuna, shrimp and tempura, and lightly fried sardines, we also enjoyed some of the best karaage Jon has ever had and marinated daikon, radish, and cucumber. The owner and her daughter were excited and engaging when we complimented them on the food and spoke to them a little bit in Japanese. The daughter spent a year studying in Canada and spoke English very well.

After lunch we strolled along Kappabashi Street, known for its kitchen retailers and outlets. This street is one big restaurant supply store. We came here looking for knives and found various kitchen implements, tools, as well as clothing that we'd both like to take home. Jon settled on one beautiful knife. We won't tell you how much it costs, because money can't buy knives, but we will be carrying it with us for the rest of the trip.

We arrived back at our new hotel just in time to meet the four other people traveling with us, Susan, Gillian, Julie, Jenny and our guide, John. Everyone besides Jon and Lisa are from Australia or New Zealand. The tour began this evening at Nihonbashi Bridge. In 1603, this bridge became the 0 km marker for the beginning of the Five Highways of Japan (Tokaido, Nakasendo, Oushu, Nikko and Koushu). It was the center of the commercial district of Edo (ancient Tokyo).

Our first dinner of the trip tonight was a traditional Kaiseki meal. We started with marinated okra, sashimi, five types of chicken (heart, neck, shoulder, skirt, breast, and thigh) skewers, pickled and marinated eggplant, and cold dipping soba.

Tomorrow, at 6:45 a.m., we begin our journey on the Tokaido Trail.
 

Which of these two onigiri sets do you think is more “adventurous"? The winner will get an extra point tomorrow.