I had a conference in Korea at the end of August, right when our friends Jeff and Melissa were on a two week trip to China and Japan. So, we made a plan to meet up and spend a weekend touring in Tokyo!
The first day we got up early (as you do there) and headed over to the big fish market.
It was bustling, and we definitely felt like maybe we weren't supposed to be there.
Several times we were almost mowed down by these guys on their propane tank carts.
Finally we found the actual market part.
It was rows and rows of fresh fish.
and more fish
and nasty fish heads
These ones were actually still alive...
...and when we were standing about this close to them, one jumped out of its little basket, and tried to attack Melissa and I, we screamed, it was embarassing....
Just outside the fish market there was a more general street market.
Here's where we stopped for breakfast. It was crazy how many people were eating Soba and tempura at 9am!
Then we went to another area of town to see a famous Buddhist temple.
There were tons of people there on a Saturday.
The temple.
This was a ritual, where you burn incense and let the smoke cover you.
We went for it.
The inside of the temple was pretty small.
This was another ritual, where we think people were getting little papers with prayers or something,
...and then tying them on these strings. But you never know.
Further downt the road, Jeff tried his hand a pachenko.
I don't think we really figure out how the game was played...
In another area of town we went to a big park, and another temple.
I rang the big gong!
This one had some water clensing ritual outside.
I was surprised to find out that the swastika symbol is a buddhist symbol. So, you see it everywhere, which definitely feels weird.
We continued walking around the park.
And came to an area with tons of lotus plants.