On Monday morning we caught a rickshaw to the Qutb Minar mosque complex which contained buildings dating from the beginning of Islamic rule in India set in beautifully manicured gardens. We saw the exquisitely carved red sandstone arch of the Alai Darwaza Gateway with the tomb of Imam Zamin behind it. The Qutb Minar itself was a 73 metre tall tapering tower of victory. It was made of red sandstone and marble and was five storeys high with each storey marked by an elaborately carved balcony. It was decorated with carved floral motifs and carved Persian calligraphy. Beneath the Qutb Minar was the Quwwat-ul-Islam Masjid – the first mosque to be built in India. In the courtyard of the mosque was a 7 metre tall Iron Pillar. There is some mystery about how it was made as the iron is of exceptional purity and scientists have been unable to determine how the pillar could have been cast using the technology available at that time. Also in the complex was the 27 metre tall Alai Minar, an incomplete tower of victory. This was planned to be twice as tall as the Qutb Minar but after the death of Ala-ud-din, construction ceased. We fed the squirrels with salted peanuts while we there. They were so tame that they took the food from our hands and even climbed up onto our legs.
Afterwards, we caught a rickshaw to Tughlaqabad. This was a massive fort of which little remained but kilometres of crumbling walls. It was still impressive for its size and the atmospherics of the ruins. We saw some hobbled donkeys inside, some huge tanks, and views over slums from the walls.
Then we negotiated with a rickshaw to take us to the Janpath Markets. Just as we were about to set off another rickshaw turned up – this one driven by a Sikh. He tried to get us to go with him and when we insisted that we were going with the original driver he lost his temper and gave him a slap! An altercation ensued with onlookers adding their two cents worth. At one stage one of the onlookers picked up a large concrete paver to pitch at the Sikh. Eventually we managed to defuse the situation and get going.
At Janpath there were permanent shopfronts selling the usual tourist stuff – leather slippers, bangles, silk scarves, pashminas etc. However the best deals were at the market style stalls where Suzie bought some cotton shirts. We walked to Connaught Place for dinner and then walked back to the hotel.
We had a slow start to Tuesday as it was our last day in India. We spent some time in the room surfing the net and catching up with our photos. It was after 11 am before we left the hotel. We went to the metro station only to find it in chaos because the x-ray machine had broken down. All bags were being manually checked which meant that the queue was enormous. We caught the metro to Rajiv Chowk (Connaught Place) and went to the Post Office to post our India Lonely Planet home. We had lunch at Connaught Place before returning to the hotel to check out and head to the airport for our flight to Japan.
We couldn't believe how clean the plane was when we got on our JAL flight!! We had a really enjoyable Japanese meal before going to sleep.
Our flight arrived at Narita Airport on Wednesday morning and after collecting our baggage and going through customs we went to the Tourist Information Desk at the airport. We bought a ticket for the Keisei Line into Tokyo and purchased four two day passes for the Metro. We caught the Kesei line train to Ueno and from there the metro to Asakusa. The metro was full of commuters who seemed to be either sleeping or nodding off to sleep – even while standing. At Asakusa we found our hotel with a bit of difficulty. We had a "semi-double" – the bed was only 120 cm wide!! It was tiny but it was clean and it had its own bathroom. After checking in we wandered into a nearby ramen noodle shop. Huge pots of stock were boiling and we went with the half tonkotsu (pork bone)/half fish stock. It was delivered with bamboo shoots, seaweed, al dente ramen noodles and spring onions. The stock was rich and flavoursome and after the overnight flight and no sleep we really needed something to pick us up. After our ramen we caught the Metro to the Tsukiji Fish Markets. Unfortunately, it was late afternoon by the time we got there and the place was deserted. We walked around Ginza for a couple of hours after that. At one stage we walked past a pet grooming place where we saw a little white toy poodle getting a finishing touch of hair spray to its grooming session. It was getting pretty cold and windy so we decided to catch the metro back to Asakusa and head back to the hotel. This time we were the ones that were falling asleep on the metro.
On Thursday morning we got off to a late start because we were both so exhausted. It was after 10 am before we left the hotel and we started off by walking around Asakusa to see if we could find somewhere to have breakfast. Most of the cafes/restaurants on our side of the river were open only for lunch and dinner so we crossed over the bridge and after a little walking around found a kind of fast food restaurant that served rice dishes. We ordered a couple of set meals - thin slices of meat and onion served on rice with a raw egg and miso soup. After this hearty brunch, we set off for the Asakusa station to catch a metro to Tokyo station. At Tokyo station we began our walking tour of the Imperial Palace Gardens and Kitanomaru Park. The Imperial Palace was a short walk from the Tokyo station. The palace was surrounded by moats and massive stone walls. We crossed over a moat to the impressive Imperial Palace Palace Plaza and then walked around the palace grounds through the Otemon Gate to the beautifully manicured Imperial Palace East Gardens. We left the gardens and walked on through Kitanomaru Park to the Yasakuni Shrine which was a memorial to the Japanese war dead. There were some good statues in stone and bronze and a steady stream of Japanese coming to pay their respects at the shrine. Bowing, point bent arms forward, one clap, bowing again and dropping a coin into the donation box seemed to be the protocol.
We finished our walking tour at this point and decided to catch the metro to Shinjuku Station. It was dusk when we arrived at Shinjuku and the area immediately surrounding the station was a mass of neon lights and signs – department stores, restaurants and bars, hotels and electronics shops. We walked around for a while trying to decide where to eat before settling on a small ramen shop where we ordered a couple of variations on the tonkotsu miso ramen theme. Then we wandered around Shinjuku for a while watching the takoyaki (octopus ball) makers, young girls with outrageous hair and clothes, and shark-like young men in shiny suits and pointy shoes in Kabukicho (red light district). Suzie thought we were looking at a hairdresser's with a large advertisement featuring many girls with different hairstyles – however it wasn't a hairdresser! We saw a man bedding down in the metro with cardboard boxes and we had seen a few elderly homeless during the day. It seemed more disturbing here amidst such wealth than India where poverty was all around.
After breakfast on Friday morning we headed for Asakusa Railway Station which was the start of our Asakusa walking tour on the first day of the Sanja Matsuri Festival of Asakusa Shrine. As we crossed the bridge a young sumo on a buckling bicycle passed us. We started the walking tour from the station and almost immediately it was obvious that today was a special festival day as the road was lined with red rickshaws and muscular young Japanese men in ninja (habi) shoes who pulled them. We took a corner through Kaminarimon Gate and entered a large open air arcade lined with stalls on both sides. They sold a bewildering array of sweets, gifts and hot foods – chocolate dipped bananas, okonomiyaki, takoyaki, yakisoba, candy floss, macaroons, hamburgers, pots of stew and yakitori. Often the product was being manufactured on site eg octopus balls assembled and cooked in front of your eyes. We bought kintsuba, a chestnut fudge to try and ate heaps of samples.
We saw Sensoji Temple at the end of the arcade with huge Gobi dogs at each side and a metal drum of incense smoke. The impressive Five Storey Pagoda was next door and lovely Japanese gardens surrounded it with rocks, writing, little shrines, water, sculptured plants and trees. We saw many Japanese dressed in traditional clothes, and some who were involved in the procession in specific outfits eg girls dressed in a stork outfit.
Continuing on the walk we stopped at a barber in Nishisando Arcade and Keith had a haircut. The haircut was good despite the communication problems!
Then we walked to Sengen Shrine, and then continued to Matsuchiyama Shoden Temple. After this we walked along the Sumida River and ended back at Asakusa Station. We headed back to the mini hotel room and did a load of washing at the coin laundry in the basement. It was the only thing cheaper in Japan than India!
On Saturday morning, we set the alarm for 7.00 am so that we could visit the Tsukiji Fish Markets while it was at its best. We caught the metro to Tsukiji and walked a couple of blocks to the Tsukiji Markets, passing busy ramen, sushi, tea, seaweed and pickled vegetable stalls on the way. The markets were a hive of activity and we had to make a concerted effort to keep out of the way of the forklifts and the men clad in rubber boots and aprons running down the aisles. We saw large frozen blocks of tuna and swordfish being cut with band saws and fresh fish being carved with extremely long knives - some of the knives looked at least one metre long. We also saw prawns, seaweed, caviar, salmon, giant octopi, puffer fish (fugu), squid, crayfish, shell fish and giant buckets of live wriggling eels. We spent a good hour walking around the market and taking pictures and then we headed back to the food stalls where we had some delicious fresh sushi for breakfast – raw tuna, raw salmon and cooked salmon. After breakfast we caught the metro to the Kagurazaka stop which was the start of a Lonely Planet walking tour. We walked along a sloping one way avenue (Kagurazaka-dori) that was lined with cafes and beautiful shops selling flowers, exquisitely decorated cakes, porcelain and dinnerware. We spent some time in a Kimono shop admiring the lovely fabrics – but left empty handed. We saw quite a few ladies walking along beautifully dressed in traditional kimonos. There were an extraordinary number of French cafes in the area. Initially we tried to stick to the Lonely Planet walking tour but we kept getting lost along the winding lanes and after trying to retrace our steps we gave up and just walked along Kagurazaka-dori Avenue.
We strolled back to the Kagurazaka metro station and caught the metro to Shinjuku to begin another walking tour. We walked around the department stores and clubs of Kabuchiko and on to the central office tower area where we ascended a government building to the observatory on the 45th floor and saw a Tokyo sunset – for free.
The next morning we headed for Asakusa Station to have a look at the Sanja Matsuri Festival on its final day. As we walked towards the temple we began passing bare legged men dressed in what appeared to be very short thigh length cotton yukata (belted dressing gowns) and a kind of cotton G-string with a modesty pouch at the front. Directly in front of the temple we saw a big group of festival participants dressed in the cotton yukata (the ladies had trousers on) and a daschund also dressed in a cotton yukata. As we walked towards the temple we saw the big portable shrine. This was carried on four long wooden poles by about 40 people who seemed to be bouncing the shrine in time to a rhythmic grunting and clapping. From time to time a yukata dressed participant in the crowd would relieve a shrine carrier. Directly in front of the shrine were two men who were dressed only in the cotton G-strings. Many of the clothed participants were drinking and some had passed out in the street.
When the crowd got too much for us, we headed off to breakfast at a nearby noodle stall and had udon noodles. Afterwards we caught the metro to Shibuya to the start of another walking tour. The main focus of this walking tour was the Meijijingu Shrine which was dedicated to the Emperor Meiji (great-grandfather of the current emperor) and Empress Shoken. The shrine was set in a beautiful garden and the literature and signage made a big deal of how esteemed the Emperor and Empress were. We saw a traditional Japanese Shinto wedding going on while we were at the temple. The outfits were very formal and beautiful – priests, bride and groom and families. We walked out of the gardens and into Harajuku, an area of young fashion featuring many Japanese girls dressed in maid outfits!!! Then we headed off to another walking tour around Tokyo Bay. We walked for ages simply to get to the starting point of the walk. We were walking through reclaimed land and out into Tokyo Bay. We found the station we needed and set off through a promenade with some beautiful flowers and over a huge smooth pedestrian bridge. Then we walked through a commercial area with some amazing high rise buildings, one shaped like the bottom half of an H and another with an enormous sphere situated near the top of the high rise. Eventually we got down to the water at an artificial beach, where we had great views of the sunset. We got onto the Rainbow Bridge, a colossus suspension bridge, and walked over the bay to Tokyo central on the other side. The views were jaw dropping and the bridge took us quite a while to walk over. On the other side was an area with canals and some ducks. We jumped onto a metro and headed back to Asukasa and our hotel where the festivities had died down, but were still going.
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