This last entry was almost a novel, so I split things up into 2 parts. If you're lucky, I'll manage to post a video of a parade today, so you won't have to read through my descriptions.
One of the main things I wanted to see is the Sanja Matsuri Festival, which is happening this weekend. It starts out today with a parade of people dressed in Edo-period clothing and real-life geishas! They are also a rare sight-not as rare as trash, but totally fascinating!
Sanja Matsuri takes place around the Asakusa Shrine and Senso-ji Temple. We will be spending some time in that area during the last part of our visit, so I'll post pics of the area then.
On our way to Asakusa, we saw this young gentleman on the subway; sumo? Anyways, I wanted a picture, but am too chicken to just go and take one. On the other hand, it would've totally added to the story had I been taken down by an apprentice sumo ringer on the subway. Nah, not today! So I pretended to take a selfie and got a shot of him. Probably didn't fool anybody, but he was too engaged in his phone to notice.
Once in Asakusa, we didn't know exactly where we needed to be, but did find the ryokan (Japanese inn) where we will spend the last 3 nights of our trip. We made our way to the temple and waited around for about an hour, before the parade arrived. I finally got to see my geishas and much more; I'll post some pictures here, but you can see the whole parade (don't worry, it's only about 2 minutes) in a separate entry. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of the geishas walking by--after I was gloating, because I got a good video, I realized I hadn't pressed the video start button. I did get a few good pics though.
A lot of spectators also dressed in traditional kimonos.
Tokyo Sky Tree
Nap time! We were both pretty much feeling the lag and after a little break, it was time for Akihibara, also known as Electric Town! And its maid cafes and manga. It's only 20 minutes away from our hotel, so we hoofed it. What a spectacle! It was loud, it was crowded, it was bright. Vending machines everywhere, humongeous TV screens blaring from buildings and "maids" trying to entice customers to come to their cafe. These cafes are nothing unsavory--they are clean entertainment, if you're into the cutesy culture and willing to play silly games with girls dressed in naughty maids outfits.
Long rows of vending machines
This was on the main drag. In one of the side streets, however, you could have anything from girls dressed in nurse outfits, to police outfits to military outfits. All not meant for real work in these professions, of course.
We had it all figured out--after walking around and taking in all of the sights, we were going to have some dinner and walk back to the hotel. Only one problem--all of the places we chose were full. We had seen this nice place with tables by the river on our way in and decided to just go there, away from the crowds, and sit outside to enjoy the warm evening. During our restaurant search, we encountered this bar:
This just begged for further research and thanks to Google (how did we ever survive without smart phones and the internet???) I found out that this a relatively new bar, which has ladies from the soft porn channel SOD (soft on demand) as "guest managers" on weekends there. This is a type of bar without chairs, where you stand at a table and drink, but the line was very long. I guess it's cool to brag to your buddies that you were drinking with a fully clad professional of the soft porn industry.
We found a table by the river, but by the time we got to that place it was 9:30 and they only had snacks available. We're flexible and welcomed pickled vegetables, crackers, nuts, sake and beer for dinner.
Sleep came quickly tonight, in a nice air-conditioned room!
Great pictures! Yes, that is a Sumo apprentice, a real one! He's not just wearing that thing. Also those vending machines are called "Gacha Gacha" in Japanese. They've been around only for children for a LONG TIME, but recently evolved to target grown ups!
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