Boats, Temples and Ninja

Wow-wee what a day.  Am writing this at 9.50pm with a glass of whisky trying not to feel bloated.  It's been a great day.

So we all said goodbye to nasty old jet lag last night, each of us getting a good sleep without the silly wake ups in the night.  In fact no-one got up until 8.30 and we were all still in our pyjamas at 10.00.  It was a wonderful lazy morning.

Boys on a boat

Golden Egg and Sky Tree

We finally left the house at 11am and got the water bus from Hinode Pier (just round the corner from our house) to Asakusa a hot tourist spot in Tokyo as it is the location of the Sensoji Temple.  It is also home of the golden turd (an Asahi building meant to look like a glass of beer, but which the locals have renamed the golden turd.  We explained this to Tom, he thought it was funny but thinks it should be called the golden egg.  (Fancy that a 5 year old who doesn't latch onto poo when given a chance!)

Charming the ladies

It was extremely hot today - the locals told us it was the hottest day of the year so far - at least 30.  We were all in sunhats and walking very slowly wilting in the heat.  Many Japanese were still wearing jumpers??  Why???  I will never understand!  We headed to the new Tourist Information Building for a look around (not much information considering its purpose) but they had a cafe on the 8th floor with a viewing area so we headed up.  The cafe was ridiculously expensive so we looked at the view, took a few photos and headed back down again.  By now it was lunch time so we went looking for something to eat.  As we are in a tourist spot, prices were quite high, so we headed off down some side streets and found an Izakaya.

When we walked in the owner wasn't too sure, but as soon as Matt started speaking Japanese they relaxed and we had a really good time.  We had two large meals: Yaki Niku for me (flash fried beef and onions in a ginger sauce with rice, cabbage, miso soup and pickles) and Fried Fish meal set for Matt (Fried pankoed fish with all the same side dishes as me).  Tom helped us with both and did really well - once again using his chop sticks to eat it all.  We left the restaurant feeling revived, especially as the owners gave us a fan each (two adult sized ones for us and a mini one for Tom) we needed them too as it was roasting outside.

Spot the tourists

We then headed towards Sensoji, as we did we noticed a covered shopping street, being unable to help ourselves we walked along it just in case we found something we needed.  It didn't take long, we found a 100 Yen shop which had to be investigated and I found a bag shop (My current bag is falling apart so one of my challenges this holiday has been to find myself a new one).  We made purchases (of course) and then carried on to Sensoji.

Too many people!

Boy with fan at temple

We actually entered the main drag of the stalls in front of it half way down and that was too much!  The prices were high and there were too too too too many people - it was crowd rage hell!  We got to the temple, took some pics, asked Tom if he wanted to make a wish (he didn't)  then went for a walk around a much quieter area with water features etc.

We were wilting again - so we left and looked for a cafe for a sit down.  We found one and got fleeced!  Oh hum, one iced tea and one coke cost almost as much as lunch earlier.  Oh well, it was nice to sit down.

Boys drinking tea

We then headed back to the station.  We found yet another 100 Yen shop to look around and also managed to find a photo station to print out some pics for Tom's scrapbook (been a bit epic trying to sort this out due to us having Apple equipment and the photo printers here only working with windows).  Then we headed to Omotesando which is where Mr Kuroda's new shop is (he had to move premises as his old place was being redeveloped).  His new shop is bigger than the old one but still an Aladdin's Cave and full of lovely high quality products.

Course 1

They were talking us out for dinner.  All they would say was that it would be somewhere interesting.  It certainly was.  We took a train and walked to a restaurant called Ninja.  We were met by a Ninja who appeared in one doorway, shouted and then took us down a dark hidden passageway.  There were waterfalls and at one point some treasure in a river which we had to cross,  a hidden walkway was lowered  so we could get across and then we had to shout for the walkway to rise again.  We were lead into a Ninja Village and our own private room.  We then had the most amazing meal - all Ninja themed, so as many of the courses as possible were black.

Here's what we had:




Course 1: Black shuriken grissini (throwing stars) with pate
Course 2: Pickled fish on raw tomato with spicy dressing (gulp - I managed the tomato - Matt didn't)
Course 3: A huge black snail with garlic butter (Matt had ebi instead) this went with a bang as it had a trail of gunpowder on it which got lit and flamed up.
Course 4: Black Rissotto croquette
Course 5: Soy milk and dashi soup with vegetables and pork - cooked with a hot stone.
Course 6: Black choux bun filled with raw salmon, avocado and horseradish cream
Course 7: A tiny glass of green seseame covered vegetables covered in white foaming soy sauce
Course 8: A frozen ball of sugary tea sorbet

Meal for Tom the Prince

Course 9: The main course - I had black cod and Matt Sea Bream
Course 10: Sushi - 5 types of sushi
Course 11: Cheesecake frog

Scary smoking box of pudding

We were both completely stuffed by the end.  I was wary of how much this was costing the Kuroda's so made sure I ate everything.  Might regret it tonight!

Cheesecake frog

Tom was served a special meal for a Prince: all his favourite stuff (again) - sausages, ebi fry, hamburger, 3 types of sushi, chunks of egg omelette, chicken karage and potato.  Wow.  He once again did really well both with eating and dexterity with chopsticks.  He then got served a pudding from a box with smoke coming out of it.  He was too scared to open the top, so Daddy helped and inside was ice cream and strawberries.  He couldn't understand how it could be cold, if there was smoke in the box.

Thank you Mr & Mrs Kuroda

Tom finished his food before us (obviously as we had so many courses) and kept us amused.  We could see a couple of floors above us and some wooden bars, so he kept telling us what animals were up there and then he started catching animals and throwing them to us.  He could only do it because he had special gloves.  It was mad, there was no reason to it, but he kept himself and the 4 of us completely entertained during our meal.

If you are curious have a look at their website: http://www.ninjaakasaka.com

A ninja magician then entered the room and did some magic tricks, focusing on Tom - getting him to hold things etc.  Tom was completely enthralled by it all.

Too quickly it was over and we were asked to leave, Tom got a little present and we took photos.  It was almost 9pm before the little one got to bed.

Our Japan rail passes start tomorrow...