Around Anciet-ish Asakusa

By -

I decided to stay in Asakusa after reading various reports in the ever reliable Tripadvisor. I exhausted my brain cells trying to figure out what area to stay in Tokyo. I concluded that the complicated subway map is proof enough that I get to any part of Tokyo as long as I stay near a station. Asakusa was the choice. It offers cheaper dorm rooms compared to those located near and around Tokyo.



The streets give off the Old-ish Tokyo Vibe. There are old buildings or trying-hard to be old buildings.

The tall tower is the Tokyo Skytree

Asakusa is the home of Sensō-ji Temple. Hence the crowd. For the four days that I was here, the crowds always looked like this. Better visit this early in the morning (7 to 8-ish AM).
 
Kaminarimon (Kaminari Gate)

Sensoji Temple. The crowd begins to disperse here. Most stay at the souvenir shops and food areas.






The garden beside the temple. It was quite early when I explored this. Not a lot of tourists and passers-by. So I had my camera in timer mode + tripod placed in stable locations. Click and go.










Lots of souvenir shops here. Wala nga lang bangketa-type bagsak sa presyo na souvenir. I find the souvenirs quite pricey. Kuripot din naman kasi ako.

Quality kimonos in this shop.

Lots of street vendors too. The street food alone can take up most of your time in Asakusa. Careful here now, this could easily eat up your travel budget. It is so much fun to look around.



How much is a katana in Japan? Even more expensive than my Indochina trip. Katanas for sale here.

Katanas. Feed the slasher in you. Harhar.
Asakusa has a multitude of restaurants and stores. I enjoyed exploring the goods in the grocery store and convenience store.

Pricey bananas, anyone?

I explored Asakusa again during my last night in Tokyo, with a fellow traveller I met from my Palaui adventure. Pics here are from his camera since I was already camera-less since Nara (another story).





Asakusa can be easily explored by foot. But if you don't like walking, you can hire a rickshaw to show you around. I saw some of the tourists prettily going around that. I am just not sure if they offer English tours since most of the passengers are also Japanese.

Comments

  1. SarahAugust 17, 2015 at 7:50 PM

    KIMONOS, GAAAAAH. I WANT.

    Oh no, I'm pretty sure mabibiktima ako ng street food...street. Haha! Were these right outside the temple? Mas mahal ba than normal street food in the city?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adventure AccountantAugust 17, 2015 at 11:46 PM

    I'M SURE MABIBIKTIMA KA. Hihihihi!
    Yes, these were right outside the temple. Easy to find. I don't think it is more expensive than normal streetfood. (Although I think expensive is normal).

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UK Visa Application in the Philippines

By -
Image
The United Kingdom (UK) may be in Europe but it is not included in the Schengen zone. You need to apply for a separate visa in the UK. I’ve always wanted to see London (because of Mary Poppins) but I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of applying and paying for another visa aside from Schengen. Since this was a family trip, I finally had the opportunity of visiting London. We had to apply for a UK visa first before applying for a Schengen visa in the French Embassy. The process is a bit similar to the US Visa application wherein you fill-out a long form, pay the visa fee, then schedule your application to submit your documents. Here’s the basic process: 1.    Create an account and fill-out application forms  here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and- immigration 2.    Pay for the visa fee - via credit card – USD 110 3.    Schedule the visa appointment in VFS Global UK 4.    Print and gather documents in the checklist 5.    Go to VFS Global UK to submit documents
Take me there!

Blaaaaah-ging

By -
Image
I established this blog as a "shrine" for my adventures.  I've have travelled, since my last update - I took time to at least update my Adventure Accounts page. It's just...more difficult to really give trip details. Each blog post takes me approximately 4 hours to write, select and watermark photos, and recheck my excel file & trip notes. So two long and detailed blog posts equal to one working day. In the last couple of years, the rise of microblogging just made it easier to just skip a blogpost; because hey, there's your audience in FB or IG. I don't like to admit this, but there's a sense of "instant validation" when others do like your travel update post vs. waiting for someone to give a nice comment in your blog post (that took hours to write).  In between my March 2017 post and today, I've been busy being a postgraduate student in the UK (thru the Chevening scholarship), then I've travelled for 90 days to cover 11 count
Take me there!

Schengen Visa Application via French Embassy in the Philippines

By -
Image
I am not a Schengen visa expert. I cannot assess your chance of getting a visa. I am only sharing what happened in my experience. Less than a year after my Europe III trip (which I haven’t blogged about), I found myself applying for my 4th Schengen visa. This was for our two-week family vacation in Europe in Italy, France and UK. Since we were staying at France the longest, we lodged our Schengen visa application with the French embassy. This time, we applied via the French Embassy . VFS Global handles the visa applications for the French embassy. I hope that before you found this blog, you already read the very informative website of VFS France in the Philippine s. Now if you haven’t, I suggest stop reading this blog entry for a while and go and click that link and spend some time reading the information there.
Take me there!