Blogmas Day 13: Asakusa
The note I made on my itinerary for the morning at Asakusa was "Tea and fruit only for breakfast because we'll be eating all morning at Asakusa!"
Asakusa is definitely a tourist hot-spot. We arrived pretty early around 9am so I was shocked to see it so mobbed already.
There's a large shopping street leading up to Sensoji Temple with many other little streets surrounding it. There is a lot of street food to try but the peculiar thing about street food in Japan is that there is always a spot next to the food stall for you to eat your food - it is not customary to eat street food while walking around on the 'streets' so just be wary of that before you go munching down your goodies while you stroll through Asakusa.
First thing we tried was Kibi Dango! Just look out for the cute bunny! It is a sweet little stick of mochi coated in soy bean powder. I really enjoyed these and I'm not much of a mochi fan.
Fresh senbei rice crackers - I've never really enjoyed these snacks but any senbei lovers should try them hot off the press!
Lots to explore, could've spent a whole day wandering around the area.
Asakusa Menchi - a type of mixed meat and vegetable katsu. There is always a queue at this shop because it gets featured heavily in TV and magazines. Although the sun was shining, the temperature was cool as it was the start of Autumn and this menchi katsu just hit the spot, would have been fab after a night out! :D
The BEST thing I ate at Asakusa - fresh Curry-pan. I had never tried curry pan fresh before and it was packed with a lovely beef curry.
At this point my sister and I were already full, and for the record we only ever bought one of each item between the two of us!
Agemanju was next food stuff we tried! It is a deep fried bread with a filling of some sort so because we were already pretty full we only tried one flavour and I decided to pick one of the more unusual ones, Sakura Cherry blossom which had a Sakura leaf and mochi in the middle.
People gather around the incense because the smoke is some sort of blessing.
Inside Sensoji Temple. You'll have to queue a little to get to the front but the custom is to throw some coins into the box, bow twice, clap twice and then bow once again
Last must have at Asakusa is MELON-PAN! These are really quite large! It's a sweet crusty bread that is called melon pan because it looks like a melon but it's not in fact flavoured like one!
Tokyo Skytree from Asakusa
Other Posts:
- Blogmas Day 14: Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki