tour of tokyo

On Saturday, my supervisor took me on a mini tour of Tokyo, to places where he said he thought I wouldn't be likely to go with my friends - I was interested to find out where we'd be going, since he's a native Tokyo resident (though that sounds kind of strange, haha) - what places may not be famous but are still worth going to.

After having some ramen for lunch, we headed to our first destination, Shibamata. Apparently it's famous for being the home of Tora-san, the protagonist of the TV show and movies 'Otoko wa Tsurai Yo' (It's Tough Being A Man), which my supervisor tells me basically every Japanese person knows (I'd also heard of it before, though I've never seen it). There's even a statue of him that was erected after the death of the actor who played him, which happened to be wearing a scarf that day, haha.

Tora-san

Then we walked down some very picturesque streets that kind of reminded me of Takayama, with lots of little shops selling sweets and souvenirs, before arriving at Taishakuten Temple. What struck me the most about it was the wooden carvings on the buildings, which were very intricate and (I'm assuming) pretty old.

Monkeys!

 Since this was my first temple visit of the year, I guess that counts as my hatsumode, unless hatsumode is supposed to be done at a shrine (I have no idea, oops). At any rate, I drew an omikuji, or a paper fortune, which turned out to be the one with the most luck! Apparently work, romance, health, and everything else should go well for me this year, which is super exciting (although now that I think about it I am not sure where I put it...hope that doesn't change things, haha).

Taishakuten Temple

I had never noticed how this building is a mug of beer until my supervisor pointed it out to me!

Next we went to Asakusa, where we went on a boat ride! In Japanese it was a suijou basu, or water bus (it was definitely a boat though), but the fliers say Tokyo Cruise in English. We went along the Sumida(gawa?) River, which goes into Tokyo Bay and has a lot of bridges (we went under 13!). I was impressed because my supervisor knew most of their names and which train lines happened to cross some of them.

Managed to take a picture just as a train was coming!

We got off at Hama-rikyu Gardens, which was a really gorgeous park that apparently used to be the family garden of the Tokugawa Shogun as well as a palace garden for the Imperial family after the Meiji Restoration. It was very peaceful and pretty even in winter, which means in spring it must be really beautiful. We stopped and had tea at a teahouse there while looking out at the saltwater lake nearby, which was very relaxing. I'd love to go back there once it gets warm and flowers bloom!

Nature amidst the metropolis

After that we went back to my supervisor's place for dinner! I got to meet his family, which was great (his little boy is adorable!), and I had a really good time chatting and having dinner with them. All in all, it was a fun and excellent day. :)

Tokyo Sky Tree!