Day 8 - Asakusa (Rest Day)

After the events last night, we decided not to do much today, mainly so we can recover somewhat from a very busy week. We strolled into Asakusa, and took an alternate route around town, and no matter how many times we walk around this place we always find something new. We found this one road which was almost exclusively pachinko parlours. We strolled round the area and found loads of locations previously unknown to us, like a giant flea-market department store and a hangout for CosPlayers!

See the full gallery on Posterous

Ended up strolling around the temple for a little while earlier, it's so awe inspiring.

See the full gallery on Posterous

There isn't much to really write about today, we went for a few walks around the areas, just generally had a lazy day, mainly using the time to catch up on this blog, sorting out the pictures and the loot acquired thus far!

I'm not sure when this blog will be updated again, as we are travelling around Japan this week, going to Fuji-San on Tuesday, Osaka and Kyoto to follow, Wi-Fi may not be available to us. 

If you are ever in Tokyo, check out the hostel we stayed at in Asakusa, it's easy to find, helpful bilingual staff, cheap rooms, air conditioned rooms and free Wi-Fi http://www.hostels.com/hostels/tokyo/khaosan-tokyo-samurai/37952 (This is a genuine review and not a referral)

 

Day 8 - Asakusa (Rest Day)

After the events last night, we decided not to do much today, mainly so we can recover somewhat from a very busy week. We strolled into Asakusa, and took an alternate route around town, and no matter how many times we walk around this place we always find something new. We found this one road which was almost exclusively pachinko parlours. We strolled round the area and found loads of locations previously unknown to us, like a giant flea-market department store and a hangout for CosPlayers!

See the full gallery on Posterous

Ended up strolling around the temple for a little while earlier, it's so awe inspiring.

See the full gallery on Posterous

There isn't much to really write about today, we went for a few walks around the areas, just generally had a lazy day, mainly using the time to catch up on this blog, sorting out the pictures and the loot acquired thus far!

I'm not sure when this blog will be updated again, as we are travelling around Japan this week, going to Fuji-San on Tuesday, Osaka and Kyoto to follow, Wi-Fi may not be available to us. 

If you are ever in Tokyo, check out the hostel we stayed at in Asakusa, it's easy to find, helpful bilingual staff, cheap rooms, air conditioned rooms and free Wi-Fi http://www.hostels.com/hostels/tokyo/khaosan-tokyo-samurai/37952 (This is a genuine review and not a referral)

 

Day 1 - Asakusa

We arrived in Tokyo around 8.30am JST, asides from some aches and general tiredness we weren't too jet-lagged. We spent a long time getting through customs, this was just a formality as we attempted to fill out the paperwork, which was long and contradictory of itself.

We left the airport and started to make our way to the Hostel, armed with some very vague directions! We arrived at Aoto and were stuck there for around 30 minutes before working out where we were going from there, in all fairness this wasn't the hostels fault but that of the train station. We eventually got to our station (Asakusa station) and trekked towards the hostel.

See the full gallery on Posterous

It didn't take us long to navigate to the hostel after getting to Asakusa Station, as it's only a 5 minute walk (snail pace!) from the station. We arrived around mid-day and was welcomed by a friendly face, after we paid our room rates (24,300¥ per person, for 9 nights - around £200/$300) We went to the room.

See the full gallery on Posterous

The room is quite small, but thats what appears to be the norm in Tokyo nowadays, I believe this is linked to the price of land/houses being so rediculously high here, the original plan was to get to the hostel and combat the effects of jet-lag by taking a power nap, instead we bumped up the schedule and went for a walk around Asakusa

Here are some pictures from the trek around the local area:

See the full gallery on Posterous

I think the musical boats we saw had something to do with the national holiday the following day (Marine Day) was quite entertaining none the less. We walked around the pier, found many vending machines and dinky restaurants, we decided to try the sushi, it was a really nice place to eat, I would have nabbed some pictures, but I didn't out of respect for the owners/patrons... I didn't want to look like the stereotypical tourist. Either way for 2,200 yen each, we ate and drank well!

That 6 pack of Asahi cost a little over £13! Ouch! Quite nice though.

We ended up crashing early mainly due to the tiredness and fatigue kicking in.

 

 

Day 1 - Asakusa

We arrived in Tokyo around 8.30am JST, asides from some aches and general tiredness we weren't too jet-lagged. We spent a long time getting through customs, this was just a formality as we attempted to fill out the paperwork, which was long and contradictory of itself.

We left the airport and started to make our way to the Hostel, armed with some very vague directions! We arrived at Aoto and were stuck there for around 30 minutes before working out where we were going from there, in all fairness this wasn't the hostels fault but that of the train station. We eventually got to our station (Asakusa station) and trekked towards the hostel.

See the full gallery on Posterous

It didn't take us long to navigate to the hostel after getting to Asakusa Station, as it's only a 5 minute walk (snail pace!) from the station. We arrived around mid-day and was welcomed by a friendly face, after we paid our room rates (24,300¥ per person, for 9 nights - around £200/$300) We went to the room.

See the full gallery on Posterous

The room is quite small, but thats what appears to be the norm in Tokyo nowadays, I believe this is linked to the price of land/houses being so rediculously high here, the original plan was to get to the hostel and combat the effects of jet-lag by taking a power nap, instead we bumped up the schedule and went for a walk around Asakusa

Here are some pictures from the trek around the local area:

See the full gallery on Posterous

I think the musical boats we saw had something to do with the national holiday the following day (Marine Day) was quite entertaining none the less. We walked around the pier, found many vending machines and dinky restaurants, we decided to try the sushi, it was a really nice place to eat, I would have nabbed some pictures, but I didn't out of respect for the owners/patrons... I didn't want to look like the stereotypical tourist. Either way for 2,200 yen each, we ate and drank well!

That 6 pack of Asahi cost a little over £13! Ouch! Quite nice though.

We ended up crashing early mainly due to the tiredness and fatigue kicking in.