Saturday, April 7, 2007

Saturday: Sightseeing with my Japanese Father!

"Sampou Suru" means to sight-see, which I (of course) love doing! My host father and I went out and toured by foot today! We walked over 10,000 steps (he wears a pedometer!)

The temple in Asakusa. People wave the incense fumes toward them because it is believed to make you smart.













Left: the two Buddha sculptures.

People wave the incense fumes towards them because it is believed that they make you smarter. (Below)


















The Asahi Beer headquarters- what a strange building!










LEFT: A Geta (Japanese traditional flip-flop/clog) shop in Asakusa.















ABOVE RIGHT: Nomikai (drinking party) in Ueno Park. It is very common to see many drinking parties in parks, especially during the hanami (cherry blossom viewing) season. People even "reserve" spots with labeled tarps!







At the Taiyaki shop. They make cute desserts there, a small caked shaped like a fish that is filled with anko (sweet bean paste). Tai means the kind of fish, and yaki means baked.
Delicious!












A pretty Buddhist cemetery. The wooden sticks have prayers and blessings on them. Chrysanthemums are the official dead-people flower-- don't give them to a living Japanese person!















By the Asakusa Temple, there are two buddhas next to each other. I'm next to one of them.(there's a picture of both above)



















This is a famous spot in what what seems to be tourist town in Asakusa. It's a big lantern, not too far from a huge temple.














On the rooftop of the Asakura Chouso Museum with my host father. This was an excellent spot to view Tokyo! The musuem was fantastic! It included Chouso's works in bronze (which is of interest to me after my bronze casting class), and was in the house he lived in. Pretty big for this town, and lots of tatami! Inside his house, he had a beautiful Japanese-style garden (niwa) that you could view from the numerous windows! Quite spectacular! (Sorry, I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside!)

1 comment:

sporter said...

I need to get a pedometer. There was an article in the paper about walking 10,000 steps a day to improve health and promote weight loss. I need to get one!