Day 4-5

Day 4
We started off the day by going to a rather bizarre shrine that had over 1,000 statues of foxes- that’s right foxes. In Japanese culture foxes are messengers of Inari who in Japanese mythology is the god of rice cultivation and prosperity, so this shrine was dedicated to Inari with thousands of fox statues! What’s lovely about the Japanese shrines is that there is always incense burning so it really adds to the atmosphere as you try to immerse yourself in Japanese mythology. We were lucky that we could kneel in the shrine but obviously with no shoes on and we weren’t allowed to take pictures within the actual shrine itself. As we knelt down monks came out and began chanting and going through a ritual with a drum I later looked this up and found out that It is often used to symbolize the beating of the Buddha’s heart and is believed to create a deep resonance that helps practitioners connect with the Buddha’s wisdom and compassion. It is also seen as a powerful tool for meditation and mindfulness. There were only 4 of us in the shrine when this happened and it was very spiritual! I’m not a Buddhist but kneeling there listening to the mantras and the drum it felt really spiritual and connecting to some higher power somewhere. Also, all the Buddhist shrine are beautifully decorated with gold and painted ceilings, it really is a breathtaking sight!

After this we took a leisurely walk to Hie Shrine which is known for having several red arches in a row, this is not the one in Kyoto that has hundreds but Hie Shrine is very quiet and still beautiful. Hie shrine is known for blessings of love and prosperity. We were lucky as the sun was shining and the brillaint blue sky framed the shrine and made the gold and red really stand out! After paying our respects we visited some gardens. This in my opinion was not worth it! It was a 40 minute walk and Google maps took us along this footpath right next to the motor way so it wasn’t particularly scenic! Once we got to the gardens it wasn’t really a garden it was just a small waterfall and all the other footpaths had been shut due to recent landslides. I was not very amused by this having trekked all the way up but Jacob spotted on a moat some people in rowing boats. We headed down and rented a rowing boat for a few hours and also a fishing rod and this quickly improved my spirits. Now we were extremely unsuccessful with the fishing but we certainly tried to look the part if nothing else! But it didn’t matter it was lovely to be on the water in the sun and we had a view of lovely green forest one way and then huge skyscrapers the other, that really sums up Tokyo in my mind. The calm and tranquil meeting the biggest metropolitan jungle in the world!

Day 5
Now today was incredibly varied and probably my favourite day so far! We started the day in Asakusa learning how to make sushi! We made kawaii temari sushi which translates to “cute sushi balls”. This type of sushi was traditionally eaten by Geisha girls and it lives up to its name- it is very cute! We got one on one teaching as for some reason the other people in the class were making different types of sushi but it worked out well as it meant it felt like a private lesson. It was very easy to make and not challenging in the slightest. You make a rice ball and then using pressure you add whatever main ingredient for example tuna or salmon and then you add your toppings of caviar or micro herbs. Unsurprisingly, Jacobs looked very professional and beautiful whilst mine looked cute but since they are meant to be “cute sushi balls” I’ll take it! Now I had a lot of fun making very pretty cute sushi balls but I didn’t really stop to think about making ones I could actually eat. For those who don’t know I don’t eat fish really at all and as I stared at these raw tuna, salmon, scallop and shrimp sushi balls they were no longer as cute as I originally thought. I powered through and ate almost all of mine but couldn’t quite stomach finishing the last few so Jacob eagerly vacuumed them up. And yes, I thought they were absolutely insufferable so my plan to get used to fish so far is incredibly unsuccessful.

Since we were in the area with time to spare we visited the Senso-ji temple which is probably the most famous temple in Tokyo as it is absolutely huge! With a great hall stretching across the main square with a five story pagoda reaching towards the clouds with massive lanterns hanging at every entrance it is incredibly dramatic and spectacular even in the pouring rain! Lots of people dressed in kimonos kneeling in the main shrine paying their and people arriving in rickshaws really made it an extremely bustling site! Once Jacob saw the calligraphy I got in my notebook he immediately hopped on the bandwagon and bought a notebook and is determined to fill it to the brim! In every temple you can ask the monks to write out a kind of stamp in calligraphy called Goshuin that proves you’ve been to that temple, it is a incredibly delicate art form and we are now both determined to collect as many as possible. Hundreds of stalls and alleyways with unique shops surrounded this temple so we strolled around the markets and I bought some chopsticks and enjoyed looking at the painted fans amongst other goods.

The last activity of today was going to watch the Sumo wrestlers train. Now when I went before it was really strict and you had to be very respectful. You couldn’t eat or drink or talk loudly. This experience couldn’t have been further from what I was expecting. We arrived and were told our seats had been upgraded to front row which was AMAZING and we were brought chicken hotpot to eat whilst we watched! The experience started off with a traditional geisha girl dance which was very beautiful using a fan. Then our host introduced the two sumo wrestlers who we would be watching and took us through all the rules of sumo wrestling. We then watched three matches and it seemed very unfair as in sumo they don’t have weight divisions so this rather scrawny sumo wrestler compared to the other one unsurprisingly lost! It really looks like a brutal sport. They start by crouching down on their tippy toes I might add! And then launch themselves at each other trying to grab onto the cloth that wraps around them and wrestle the other sumo out of the circle. We then got a chance to ask the sumos lots of questions and got to take a photo with them. It was a very surreal experience and Jacob and I came out feeling like we were just in a fever dream! But all jokes aside it is a very impressive sport that they take unbelievably seriously, and when you are throwing yourself at a 200kg man - I can’t blame them!Read more