Asakusa

Today we went on a daytrip to Asakusa, the biggest shrine in Tokyo. The place was absolutely packed with people coming to celebrate the new year. To get to the shrine, we walked up a 340M avenue lined with shops selling souvenirs, snacks, toys and clothes. Several thousand other people were trying to get there too, so had to shuffle along like penguins for about half an hour before getting to the temple steps, where police acted like traffic lights to limit the number of people entering.

Inside, the crowd was throwing an offering of money into the shrine and praying. There was so much money being thrown that several monks were kept busy sweeping up coins and notes into collection bins. We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant famous for its tempura, and although we had to wait half an hour to get in, there was a line 4 times as long outside an older restraunt famous for the same recipe.

I blessed myself with lucky incense at the temple, however it didn't banish the flu I was coming down with. It must be a long-term thing. I also saw the first whale restraunt I've ever seen in Japan (this trip or the last). I didn't want to support it, though I was curious about the taste. From what Chihiro was telling me, the laws against whaling are seen as overprotective and causing minke whale populations to increase dramatically, which has lead to a lack of food for the endangered blue whale. I'm not so sure about it, but I found this page with a similar theory.