Monday, July 29, 2013

Backlog, Tokyo and the Sumida river firework display

Today I woke up early in order to get to Tokyo in time.
I said my goodbyes to my host at the Momoyama minamiguchi station from where I took the train towards Kyoto station.

There I quickly bought my ticket to the Hikari Shinkansen super express train and I was soon of towards Tokyo.
I was to meet Ako at the Nippori station at 1 p.m. and from there we were going to go and eat something together and after
that to see around the town again.

She waited for me at the stations north gate and I left my stuff to the coin locker there since I was going to take them
with me once we would return in the evening from the fireworks.
I had been invited to see the fireworks from her cousins house's rooftop in the evening.

So after locking the locker we took the JR Yamanote line to shinjiku (if my memory serves me right) and went to get something to eat there.
There seemed to be something going on outside the station. Later on we found out that it was a Belgian beer "festival" going on.
The smell that came from the food stalls was amazingly tempting. So we hurried to get something to eat.
At the tokyo dome city
We decided to go to Katsuya, a restaurant that specializes on cutlets. I ordered a set meal with rice, miso, roast cutlet and cabbage salad.
It was so good and filled me right up! I love these types of food that are so convenient, cheep and so, so delicious!

From there on we took the train to Tokyo dome, I had read that there was a moomin cafe/bakery there and had seen pictures
of it on the internet. I wanted to go there only to by "finish" bread, namely Rye bread. I miss it so much now that I am here
in Japan, cause here they don't have any other type of bread than white bread made of wheat. Boring!

So I bought myself a half a loaf of rye bread and combed through the shop before leaving towards Asakusa. The Sumida River flows near Asakusa and
it is this river where the famous firework display is held each year.

Of we went and when we had arrived to Asakusa I wanted to change my clothes so bad! It was so hot and my clothes did not really
breathe at all so they were getting very wet. I went to the Uniqlo store and bought myself a pair of shorts/pants and a polo
shirt.
I put them on in the store and put the my other pants to my bag and threw away the shirt I had had on before.
It wasn't an important shirt so it didn't really mean enough for me to keep it.

We then met up with Akos friend before starting to walk to the apartment building where we were going to watch the fireworks.
People were totally in to the mood outside. People in kimonos were walking down the street, food stalls were here and there, roads were being closed of.
It was a amazing sight to witness. We bought some beers at the liquor store and continued all the way to the house.

After the introductions and the usual polite greetings we climbed up to the roof and sat down. They had brought food with them up there
so it was a true feast!
The fireworks started at 19.30. It was totally breath taking and these kind of opportunities don't come often.

But then the weather took a turn for the worst, it started to rain after an hour had passed. The fireworks were supposed to last longer but they were cancelled
on the count of the rain.
So we went inside and drank at the apartment.

Later we left there to go to Nippori station and from there to Akos apartment. Now the rain had already ended so we were very lucky!
It had been a fun day even if it had rained and we still got to see some fireworks so in the end, it was not a failure.

Tomorrow I am of to Nagasaki by train. Looking forward to that.

Cheers!
Robert

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