I met my friend Dee-san for breakfast at her hotel at 9 am. The buffet overlooks a traditional Japanese garden with cascading water falls and a large Koi pond. It was quite a view.
After breakfast, Dee-san and I went to Akihabara to get cameras. I was particularly motivated to get a small point and shoot after lugging around the Nikon D70 for 3 days. I immediately fell in love with the Fuji FinePix J150 but they didn't have an international model (no English instructions or international warranty) and the price was kinda steep (about 300 - 350 yen). A phone call to Norm later and I decided to wait...and sulk.
Dee-san bought herself a nice early birthday present (Lumix Fs5 by Panasonic). The sales people at Yodobashi Akiba were super nice and helpful - almost too helpful. The clerk suggested an international wall plug because he wasn't sure if the chord to charge the camera would be rated for the U.S. (the plug adaptor was roughly $2.00). He rings up the purchase, a process that includes little rubber stamps, multiple receipts, stapling things to the pages of Dee-san's passport, and 2 clerks to keep it all straight. Well, it turns out that the chord doesn't need the adaptor, which - whatever, right? It's $2.00. Well, the clerk is just beside himself. To refund the money requires 2 manager-type people, 3 more clerks, new little rubber stamps, additional receipts, the passport, 27 ritualistic bows, a sacrificial white lamb, and about 30 minutes of time. It was a little much.
From Akihabara we took the subway to Asakusa. Asakusa is home to the Sensoo-ji Temple. Sensoo-ji enshrines a golden image of Kannon (the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy) which, legend has it, was fished out of the Sumidagawa river by two fishermen in 628. We approached the temple through the Kaminari-mon (Thunder Gate) which is protected by Fuujin, god of wind (right side); and Raijin, god of thunder (left side). At dusk, when the lights around the temple turn on, the eyes of these two gods seem to glow menacingly.
In front of the temple there is a large cauldron (for lack of a better word) filled with burning incense. The smoke is supposed to bestow good health and you rub the smoke into your skin before making your way up the temple steps. At the top of the steps, you throw some money (5 yen or so) into a metal grate. I think that the sound of the money hitting the metal signals your presence to the god of the temple. In some temples, you pull a rope and it sounds a gong. At any rate, once you have the god's attention, you pray and then finish by clapping your hands twice. Sensoo-ji temple complex can also boast to the second tallest pagoda in Japan, an interesting fact to toss around at a dinner party, should you feel so inclined.
We left the temple by way of Nakamise-doori. Nakamise-doori is a pedestrian walkway that is chock-a-block with stores. I found a blue and white yukata with koi on it, as well as a handmade change purse made of deer skin. Eventually, we wound our way through and found an onsen that we had both read about and wanted to try.
A word about onsens and sentoos - I realize that public bathing is not for everyone but in Japan, taking a break at a sentoo or onsen is practically a national past-time. An onsen gets its water from a natural hot springs (a sento can heat its water) and different onsen have different types of water, depending on the source. The Jakoysu-yu onsen (which is where we went) has mineral rich, dark colored water (like a reddish brown color) and it is hot hot hot - 45 C. The onsen and sentoos in Japan are subsidized by the government so they are pretty reasonably priced. We paid roughly $4.50 to enter the onsen and we purchased towels and soap for an additional $3 - $4. First we paid the front desk attendant, then we went into the ladies changing room, put everything into a locker, grabbed a senmenki (wash basin) and headed for the women's bathing area.
Before stepping into bath, we washed at a bank of low showers and water spigots. This involved sitting on a low stool, soaping up and scrubbing down. Then you spend about 10 minutes rinsing off, ensuring that there are absolutely zero soap particles left on your body before getting into the bath. There are three baths that you circulate between - the scalding hot, volcanic water bath, the milder simmering bath and the freezing ice bath. I jumped right into the scalding hot water bath. Dee took a more measured approach and went to the simmering, not as scalding, bath first. Honestly, it was quite pleasant after the initial shock subsided. I actually liked the ice cold bath the best and was pleasantly relaxed by the time we were finished.
We ended the afternoon with tempura at Daikokuya and for dessert we had purple sweet-potato ice cream. Dee-san was meeting people for dinner so we parted ways around 6 pm. Norm's co-worker, Lester, stopped by the room to see if we wanted to hit up Shibuya for some shopping. We ended up at Loft (a large department store in Shibuya) and they were hosting something called "Pop Box: Popculture Bazaar". Norm and I especially liked the art from Mad Barbarians (www.madbarbarians.com). We looked around for a while then headed back to the hotel.
And that, as they say, was Wednesday
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