On New Year's Day we made a pilgrim circuit in Nihombashi, since everything is closed on New Year's Day in Tokyo, on the level of Thanksgiving and Christmas at home. Some businesses close for multiple days. This one restaurant I had my eye on is closed for three weeks!
A few days later we had a walk in Yanaka, an older part of Tokyo. One could have easily checked off 70 temples.
There was a queue for the first shrine, the Koami Shrine, on the Nihombashi circuit. Actually there was more than one queue. First below, see a guy holding a "this is the end of the line" sign. Second below, see the head of the line at the Koami Shrine, and the couple at lower right reading a piece of paper telling their fortune for the upcoming year.
Suitengu Shrine
The last of the seven shrines of Nihombashi is the Suginomori Shrine.
After a long day of visiting shrines, we stopped at our fav ramen resto, Hidakaya, for two bowls of noodles with vegetables, and an order of veggie gyoza (potstickers). Yummy!
Our Yanaka walk on Jan 04 was lots of fun. The first temple we visited already had Year of the Snake banners up.
We walked down the Fujimi-zaka Slope, a street that used to have a view of Mt Fuji until it was blocked by tall new buildings. This is a dubious claim to fame IMO.
Time for a lunch break, so we crossed the RR tracks (with a brief stop for some trainspotting) and headed for our fav tempura resto, Tenya Tempura Tendon, for tempura rice bowls, and noodle soups.
Buddha Image at Tennōji Temple.
Temple Gate.
Yanaka Pedestrian Street
And we finished up the walk at the Nezu Shrine and its very modest Torii Gates.
5 comments:
Looks like you're having good weather, but lots and lots of people!
Great pics! Liz
Look at those organised queues! Beautiful! Are those noodles broken in the ramen bowls? They look smaller and different. Never had tempura bowls before but I'll be looking out for them, they look yummy! Great pictures
Thanks Liz!
Yes, lots of people, but there never seems to be chaos or haste in a Japanese crowd or queue. We have never felt overwhelmed... But stayed tuned for our report on the Black Nazarene festival in Manila. No tranquilo.
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