Japan: Day 2 - Part 2

These posts are going to take me forever, but if I don't do them in small increments/chapters then I get overwhelmed by all my photos and such...I took a ton.  Plus I like being a little more photographically detailed for future memories.

Lots and lots of pictures.

After the Imperial Palace we headed to the Asakusa Kannon Temple, which is a Buddhist temple.  After living in Taiwan for 11 months I have seen my share of Buddhist temples, so this part wasn't as exciting to me.  But it was connected to a gigaaaaantic shopping district.

Pagoda on the temple property.

This is the temple we visited.  See the smoke there in the middle?  It is a monument of burning incense, and before entering the temple you're "supposed" to go to the smoke and inhale it and put your head in it and rub it in your hair and so forth; all for good luck.

Giant lantern right in entrance.

Elevated doors.

The art on the ceiling of this temple was beautiful.

This is looking from the temple stairs.  This is the entrance to the Nakamise Shopping District.

Sooooo many people!  It was intense.

You can see people going to the smoke and rubbing it on their hair and bodies.

My tour gave us an hour to go walk around the shopping district.  An hour didn't even scratch the surface.  I didn't buy anything but postcards, but there were tons of interesting things to look at.  Problem was you couldn't stay put for very long because there was a giant stampede of people always moving.

Awesome masks.

This little person was balancing this on her shoulders and walking around.

After an hour we got back in the bus and went on our way towards our location for a late, 2 pm lunch.

They drive on the opposite side of the road here.  There was more than one time I thought someone was coming right at us in our lane...but no.

Lunch was at a hotel right on the Tokyo Bay.  It had a fantastic view of the bay amongst other things.

Lunch was up in that brown box part at the top.

View from my table.

The coolest looking ferry boat ever.

Delicious fish and shrimp with one piece of broccoli, one baby carrot cut in half, and...

half a McDonald's hash brown?

I made a lot of friends during lunch because we all sat together and talked.  I met people from Chile, France, Singapore, Hollister, CA (45 minutes from my home!), and Australia.  Plus they all got to know me because I was "that solo traveler asking everyone to take his picture."  But all you have to do is offer to return the favor and take one of them with their family.  Works every time.

- to be cont'd -