Senso-ji > Nihombashi > Marunouchi > Ginza > Kappabashi > Hoppy Street
(Links to places are at the end of the post.)
The gift of jet lag: waking up at 7:30am. We were scheduled to meet Ayako at her exhibit in Takashimaya Nihombashi at 10:30am. Normally, that sort of morning appointment would be a challenge but we were both already awake, so I suggested visiting Senso-ji first since it’s on the way to the subway anyway. Senso-Ji is Tokyo’s oldest temple and one of the highlights of Asakusa, the area where our hotel is located.
Legend has it that two fishermen pulled a gold statue of Kannon (aka Guanyin 觀音), the Buddhist goddess of mercy, from the Sumida River in 628AD. A holy man built this temple in her honor in 645. The temple survived the great Kanto earthquake of 1923 but not the bombings in World War II, so the buildings were rebuilt in the same footprint as its Edo-period layout. Signs that Japan paid for its aggressions in the war are in all the places obliterated by Allied bombs, but they have preserved their heritage by rebuilding. Soon, these structures won’t be young anymore, and their unique cultural history will continue.
We entered through the northwest side of the Senso-ji complex and one of the first things we came across was one of the kiosks where you can ask the deities a question/get your fortune. You shake a canister until a stick falls out and the number on the stick tells you which drawer to open. Nearby is a rack where you can tie the paper and leave it behind if you don’t like the answer/fortune you got, which made me laugh. Superstitious but also practical! How Asian.
Ayako said the temple is like Disneyland and it wasn’t until we got there that we understood the comment completely. It was overrun with tourists. I’d hoped to get into that zone where the surroundings, architecture, and solemnity of temple operations take you to a place of peace, but it was just too chaotic. In the main hall, there was a large crowd jostling to take pictures of the monks doing their morning prayers… right in front of signs saying “No photography or videos”.
The architecture is undeniably impressive. A five-storied pagoda rebuilt in 1973 is called Goju-no-to and holds Buddha’s ashes, because pagodas (as I have now learned) are built to house sacred relics.
The Hozomon “Treasure Gate” sits at the northern end of the Nakamise-dori, a 250-meter approach road to the temple that is now a shopping alley. Hozomon has two guardian statues on each side of the gate, plus three lanterns in the middle and two giant straw sandals on the back pillars. Apparently, the Hozomon was rebuilt in 1964 with fireproof materials and its second floor now stores some of the temple’s most treasured objects, hence its name.
The giant straw sandals, meant to imply how big and intimidating the guardian spirits are, are apparently remade every ten years. They are donated by Murayama City in Yamagata Prefecture, weigh 500 kilos, and involves 800 people to weave them over 18 months.
We never made it to the other famous gate and official entrance of Sensoji, the Kaminarimon (“Thunder Gate”) located at the southern end of the Nakamise-dori. The street, although historic and one of the oldest shopping streets on temple grounds, is similarly overrun with tourists. The shops selling food, kimonos, and traditional souvenirs were not that appealing to us. I went from thinking we didn’t have enough time to experience Senso-ji to wanting to get out of there as soon as possible, so we cut out through a side street and headed to the subway station. We got on the Ginza Line and headed to Takashimaya for Ayako’s ikebana (art of flower arrangement) exhibit, but we arrived before the building opened at 10:30am.
Cafes don’t tend to open until 10am in Tokyo and we had to avail of the free coffee in our hotel lobby to tide us over that morning. We figured we could grab something before going to the exhibit, so I googled “convenience stores” and immediately found a 7-Eleven across the street. Croquettes and siopao (pork buns) FTW! The coffee machine freshly grinds beans for every cup and was quite decent as well.
We didn’t realize at the time but Takashimaya is one of the grand old department stores in Tokyo, with branches all over Japan and overseas. The building itself in Nihombashi is designated as an important cultural property by the country, according to Ayako. We got in the elevator with its gold trim and antique sliding gates, and it would be fair to say that the elevator lady was the most well-dressed person in the space in her white gloves, elegant suit, and pillbox hat.
The ikebana exhibit was packed with people. I guess it’s like the student recital of Sogetsu school, and this was actually the second of two events that took up multiple rooms in the exhibition hall. We were so surprised to see how creative the pieces were!
Ayako’s work was #134 and it was beautiful! She incorporated a fresh flower (the one she got when met us the day before!), cactus bones, Japanese pampas, and other plants. It is a very balanced piece (not just structurally) with soft and hard elements, bright and somber colors, and contrasting textures.
There’s a ton of mixed media included in the artwork aside from objects in nature. I was surprisingly drawn to the more “goth” pieces with its moody black and red elements. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Afterwards, we headed to the massive complex of restaurants in the basement of Tokyo Station for lunch. We must have walked 3-4 blocks underground before we picked omurice (omelet + rice) amongst the overwhelming number of choices. We’d seen the dish in a number of Asian dramas and were curious as to how it actually tasted in Japan.
For dessert, we finally found the soft serve I’d been craving since arrival… at Godiva chocolates. The ice cream was divine but it was the affogato Jordan ordered that was impressive. I’ve never seen it served in such a perfect way: the espresso is in a small cup that also serves as a lid to the ceramic mug that holds the ice cream. The gorgeous custom pottery was made especially for Godiva somewhere in Japan. I wanted to buy it despite knowing I’d have to carry it to three more cities before getting home, but alas, it was not for sale.
Tokyo station is a destination in itself with its distinctive red brick facade and the sheer volume of people and trains that pass through it at any given moment. This area is called Marounuchi and the headquarters of several big companies like Mitsubishi are located here. A lot of the high rise buildings nearby kept the facades of the older structures to preserve them, so we can still see the original architecture wrapped around the lower floors of the existing towers. Ayako also explained how certain companies bought the rights to the space above the station… which is such an interesting proposition. They might build crossways between buildings above Tokyo station in the future.
We walked for a little bit in the garden of the Imperial Palace, which is a concrete jungle with trimmed trees that resembled giant bonsai. Many runners were taking advantage of the wide open space to train (which reminded me of the CCP complex in Manila). It was too hot to keep walking, so we left for the Art Aquarium in Ginza shortly.
I found out about the Art Aquarium while watching some Japanese show on Netflix. It really is a fascinating convergence of lighting, art design, and whatever the practice of raising goldfish is called. Part of their philosophy is incorporating living things into art. I wonder if the animal activists would shut this down in the US. The goldfish seem to be living a good life in their beautiful, clean, crystal clear water tanks.
We went through the different sections: a mirrored gallery of pillars, another with portholes, a waterfall, a “bamboo” grove, a grid of transparent square tables that can be admired from the top and from the sides, and a new collaborative exhibit that incorporated ikebana by one of the masters at Ayako’s school. The concepts were so creative and whimsical! I’m really grateful that we made time to see this unique attraction in Tokyo.
I’d made plans with Akira, an old classmate from Babson, to have dinner so we headed back in the direction of our hotel with a quick detour to Kappabashi kitchen street for the bag store.
Inujirushi Seisakucho, as it turns out, has been in Asakusa since 1953. Their carefully handcrafted canvas bags featuring the dog logo (the store’s name is literally “dog seal/mark”) were very hard to resist. I got the navy pencil case I wanted, but then also bought a My Melody shoulder bag on impulse. It’s a mini white canvas tote with brown leather handles and pen holders. The shop even added carrying straps for me right then and there. I’m neither a Sanrio nor a My Melody fan but it was just so damned cute. 😍 The craftsmanship is outstanding. Every stitch, every rivet looks perfect.
On the way back to our hotel, we took a side street and happened upon their factory/workshop. There were a few familiar looking bags on the shelves but otherwise, it was crammed full of bolts of fabric and sewing machines. Inujirushi really is as local a business as it can get in Asakusa.
Jordan was getting tired (and increasingly cranky) so he went back to the room for a nap. Ayako needed to get something from a shop across the street so we headed there, then she noticed a taiyaki (fish-shaped waffle with a custard filling) place where we found the second dessert highlight of the day: grilled taiyaki AND kakigori (shaved ice dessert). The shop has a little package that gets you both taiyaki plus matcha tea, so of course we did. I’ve had the waffle fish with red bean custard at the Taiyaki NYC chain here in Boston, but this one is grilled vs. cooked in a cast iron mold. Maybe it was also the company, but I thought this grilled version was particularly delicious (especially when paired with matcha).
I have to admit that I never found kakigori impressive since I grew up in the land of halo-halo, but this one was spectacular: beautifully sculpted fine shavings of ice topped with red beans and bright with green matcha syrup. When we dug into it, there was more red bean inside. Good thing we were advised to share one because it was enormous. (P.S. Another “why doesn’t every other country/city/restaurant do this?” Moment: there are rolling bins for customers’ bags and jackets for you don’t have to share your chair with your belongings.)
Since we had a morning flight the next day, Akira suggested we meet close to our hotel for dinner. He picked Hoppy Street, which is only a couple of blocks away and lined with izakayas, the Japanese version of a local pub. The street is named for the Hoppy drink, a cheap alternative to beer with very low alcohol content, so one can drink a lot without getting drunk quickly (which a lightweight like me can appreciate, seeing as I am the kind of Asian that lacks the enzyme for processing alcohol).
Thank goodness we had two native speakers with us because there was no way Jordan and I could have navigated this meal ourselves. Hoppy Street was, well, hopping on this Saturday night and we just grabbed the first available table we found, sitting out on the street in the smoking section. I have no idea what the place was called and I couldn’t tell you what we ate, except to say that it was a series of little delicious plates that we all shared over drinks.
Afterwards, they asked what else we wanted to do and I asked if we could try monjayaki, Tokyo’s version of the okonomiyaki that dates back to the Edo period (1638-1868). Both are savory pancakes cooked on a hot plate with different ingredients, but the Tokyo version has a more liquid consistency. I hoped to try the typical okonomiyaki when we got to Osaka since it first became popular in that region, but I was very curious about how they differ.
We waited a little while for a table at Asakusamonja Kanoya Hanare (established in 1871 or 明治4年, if I’m interpreting the signage correctly), one of many monjayaki restaurants in the area. I suppose there are only so may hot plates to go around and all the customers need access to one. Some people sat at counters by the windows, which were open due to the unseasonably warm day, and one of the staff was standing outside cooking the monjayaki through the window. We were also greatly amused that the host offered to spray people with some sort of fabric deodorizer on their way out of the restaurant.
In hindsight, I really was not hungry enough to eat again but I’m so glad we didn’t pass up the experience. We had to order four things because there were four of us, so Ayako and Akira got us two appetizers and two monjayaki. The hot appetizer was squid that had to be grilled by us, then a staff member came over to help with making the monjayakiitself.
The vegetables are grilled first, then shaped into an oval where the batter is poured into the middle. The finished monjayaki is eaten off the hot plate using tiny spatulas. Akira remembers having monjayaki after classes during grade school, and I can see how this would be the perfect snack amongst students: an inexpensive meal eaten together around a communal hotplate.
Akira and Ayako parted ways with us in front of our hotel, bringing to a close a day that was very long and very very full. We brought many great memories of Tokyo with us before heading off to Manila to see my family the next day.
LINKS:
Nihombashi Takashimaya Department Store
Inujirushi Kaban Seisakucho (bag store)
Asakusa Naniwaya (taiyaki and kakigori)
Asakusamonja Kanoya Honten (monjayakai restaurant)
