Day 3

A day-trip around the Western and older parts of Tokyo actually began at the most modern area. Shimbashi (or as I termed ‘future-world’ a long time ago) is a collection of underground walkways, a driverless monorail system, and futuristic buildings. For example, this one appears paper thin:

Hama Rikyu park was out first destination. A very surreal gardens as it is set alongside the skyscrapers yet is so serene.




We hopped on a boat which took us up the Sumida River to Asakusa.


We passed a plethora of sights, most of which I hadn’t even known existed/what they were the first time I made this journey: Tokyo tower, Odaiba, and a boat fresh out of Stingray, among others:




Arriving Asakusa, we headed to the Asahi beer tower; the highest building in this picture, just behind the ‘Flaming Turd’ (‘Flame d’Or’)

At this height, the city went on forever.


Asakusa temple, determined to be the number one tourist spot in Tokyo, was bustling as ever, with its many market stalls lining the street between the Thunder Gate and the Main Temple.



We also tried おみくじ (omikuji - fortune-telling). From what I remember, Barbara received good luck, Dad had semi-good luck, and I was landed with bad luck. What happens is that you put 100円 into a slot and then shake a hexagonal box. After reading the number on the first stick that comes out, you take a piece of paper from the drawer with the respective number. The final stage, after reading your fortune, is to tie the paper around the wire.



In the late afternoon, I took Dad and Barbara back to Harajuku to a shop where they could be made up as a Maiko (similar to Geisha, but more colourful) and a Samurai.
Who would be which?...

It was a very interesting process, and although it takes a whole two hours to make the transition complete, you can imagine how gruelling and painful it would be for a proper geisha/maiko, who would take a whole afternoon to prepare as well as not having any of the latest make-up to use. (Oh, and the samurai sword was sharp!)






Whilst on photographer-duty, I may have abused my role a little bit*:





The end result:

*well, you requested more pics with me in them.