Horse Meat

I went to Asakusa the other day to see a rakugo. Rakugo 落語 is basically Japanese light comedy. It's very traditional: the music and the outfit the comedian(? or storyteller) wears. So the guy comes in and has a seat at the stage, which is Japanese style with the seat pillow (called kouza 口座) and everything. Then, he begins talking. I could only understand about fifty percent of what he was saying. At times, he would talk about something really local and I would get lost. Overall, it was a good experience. I wish I could have understood more, but actually, I was quite surprised at how much I did understand. 

The rakugo took place at a cafe and the audience was all middle-aged to old seniors. It's something that you either like or not. I guess it's hard for foreigners to like because its easy to get lost and hard to understand at times, and it's hard for young people because there are so many other things to do. For me, it was worth the experience. It was not necessarily interesting or funny, but it is something you cannot find in New York.

The cafe it was held at.

It cost me ¥2000, which is actually rather cheap compared to other places. 

His name is Tachibanano Enman 橘の圓満.

Besides the rakugo, though, I explored around Asakusa. Asakusa is a beautiful place. There are so many temples and all of them at such random places, in between tall buildings and whatnot.

Kamiya Bar
I just thought the architecture was unique. And if you look at the background, Asakusa Station is to the right (I wrote a post about that last month). 

And here, you can see Skytree. 

Hand-drawn car; it was really expensive!

Well, Asakusa is well-known for Sensoji Temple, which is often called Tokyo's most sacred and spectacular temple. It was spectacular, indeed! Sensoji was built for Kannon, the goddess of mercy (in Chinese, it's 觀音菩薩 guanyin).

Kaminarimon Gate
"Thunder Gate"

There are four statues built around the gate. Two of them are Shinto deities and represent the god of wind and the god of thunder.  The other two are the Buddhist god Tenryu and goddess Kinryu.
This picture is Kinryu.

Tenryu

God of Wind
風神

仲見世通り
Nakamise Street, filled with shops selling traditional wares and souvenirs: obi sashes, kimono, hair combs, fans, etc. 

Ningyoyaki
Ningyo means "doll" or "figure" and yaki means "fry," so "fried dolls." lol
Well, they're basically cakes molded in different shapes. They had red bean filling. 

 

senbei shop–so perfectly stacked!

Age Manjuu
Fried Manju
There were so may flavors: pumpkin, sweet potato, monja, sesame, pumpkin, sakura..

Cute cellphone straps

Anpanman!

And I love how the gates of the shops are designed with paintings. Very different from the graffitied New York store gates.

The architecture is very similar (if not, the same) as China in the fourteenth century. 

The Five-Story Pagoda.

Hozomon
"Treasure House Gate"
A two-story gate holdiing many treasures of Sensoji, such as  two statues, lanterns, and 14th century Chinese sutras.

The main hall, where the Kannon statue is kept. Unfortunately, it was closed the day I went. 

People come to pay their respects by throwing coins here.

A shot from inside Hozomon.

沙竭羅竜王像

How to properly cleanse yourself before entering a temple. 

Incense

Gingko

After Sensoji, I wandered around Kappabashi-dori, which is known as Kitchen Town. From the name you can already guess that the shops here sell kitchen utensils. There were all different kinds of knives, pots, pans, and even larger things like cake displays and ovens.

Display shop.

so cute and creative!

There are these kappa mascots everywhere due to the name of the street. Because "kappa" is actually the name of a Japanese mythical creature, many shops have adopted it as their mascot. 

An actual statue of Kappa. 

Creative sign. 高い means expensive, so the store designer actually flipped the character to indicate that the stuff is no expensive.

A really old temple.
Compared to those cleanly designed and newly renovated temples, I actually prefer these.

Well, I headed off to find a place to eat.

horumonyaki: organs

I don't know about that..

first Burger King I spotted in Japan so far.

Well, in the end, we decided on a restaurant called Basashiya Masashi, which specializes in horse meat. I've been wanting to try it for a while now, since I heard it was delicious.

The restaurant is from Kumamoto Prefecture, which is known for horse meat, so the ingredients are actually imported from there.

And Kumamoto means "bear origin," so you see bear mascots here.

Basashi, horse sashimi.
It might make you cringe one, because it's horse meat, and two, because it's raw, but it was surprisingly delicious. It was very chewy, but there was a lot of flavor. We ordered a three piece sample plate, which had meat from three different parts of the horse. It came with a special soy sauce, though, which I thought tasted similar to Chinese soy sauce.

馬肉味噌焼きおにぎり
Horse Yaki Onigiri
sooo good

鮮馬桜すきやき
Horse Sukiyaki
It was my first time having sukiyaki, too, and it's basically like a dry shabushabu or wet yakiniku. You basically pan fry the ingredients in a sukiyaki sauce, which is quite sweet, and then dipped the cooked items into a raw egg and then eat. It was really good!

And lastly, we finished off with a desert: ジャージー牛乳アイス Jersey milk ice cream.