River Sumida

The Sumida River (隅田川, Sumida-gawa) is a river which flows through Tokyo, Japan. It branches from the Arakawa River at Iwabuchi and flows into Tokyo Bay. Its tributaries include the Kanda and Shakujii rivers.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Asakusa Sensō-ji

Sensō-ji (金龍山浅草寺, Kinryū-zan Sensō-ji?) is an ancient Buddhist temple located in Asakusa, Taitō, Tokyo. It is Tokyo's oldest temple, and one of its most significant. Formerly associated with the Tendai sect, it became independent after World War II. Adjacent to the temple is a Shinto shrine, the Asakusa Shrine.

(source: Wikipedia)

Nakamise-dōri

Nakamise-dōri is a street on the approach to the temple. It is to have come about in the early 18th century. Neighbors of Sensō-ji were allowed to set up shops on the approach to the temple. In May of 1885 the government of Tokyo ordered all shop owners to leave. In December of that same year the area was reconstructed in Western-style brick. During the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake many of the shops were destroyed. They were rebuilt in 1925 using concrete, but destroyed again during the bombings of World War II.

The length of the street is approximately 250 meters and contains around 89 shops.

(source: Wikipedia)

Ramen for 600 yen

This set costs you 600 yen. I think it is a very reasonable price. And the most important things of all, it tastes delicious! Oishii desu ne!

The ramen broth is made from pork. I can feel the chef's hard work in making the broth by tasting the rich soup.

And for the gyoza, it tastes superb! The juicy minced meat melts directly in my mouth after the first chew! Awesome!

I will definitely come back to this shop in Akihabara in future. Value-for-money!

Replica Ramen

This store specializes in Japanese Ramen. The display in front of the shop is NOT real, but it looks like real to me. The 'mock' or replia ramen is made of some acrylic, wax or other chemical substance.

Japan is one of the countries which is famous in this 'food display art' business. Japan began the practice of presenting menu offerings with plastic imitations, and the practice has spread somewhat to neighboring countries and -- of course -- is followed by Japanese eateries around the world. The concept is certainly tied to Japanese dining aesthetics, where items are arranged on the plate with beauty in mind.

Akihabara Electric Town

Akihabara (秋葉原, Akihabara?) ("Field of Autumn Leaves"), also known as Akihabara Electric Town (秋葉原電気街, Akihabara Denki Gai?), is an area of Tokyo, Japan. It is located less than five minutes by rail from Tokyo Station. Its name is frequently shortened to Akiba in Japan. While there is an official locality named Akihabara nearby, part of Taitō-ku, the area known to most people as Akihabara (including the railway station of the same name) is actually Soto-Kanda, a part of Chiyoda-ku.

Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods, including new and used items. New items are mostly to be found on the main street, Chūōdōri, with many kinds of used items found in the back streets of Soto Kanda 3-chōme. First-hand parts for PC-building are readily available from a variety of stores. Tools, electrical parts, wires, microsized cameras and similar items are found in the cramped passageways of Soto Kanda 1-chōme (near the station). Foreign tourists tend to visit the big name shops like Laox or other speciality shops near the station, though there is more variety and lower prices at locales a little further away. Akihabara gained some fame through being home to one of the first stores devoted to personal robots and robotics.

(source: Wikipedia)

Music VOX @ Akihabara

Spectacles Statue

Sacred Water in Jinja

Ema Prayer Plaque

Ema (絵馬, Ema?) are small wooden plaques on which Shinto worshipers write their prayers or wishes. The ema are then left hanging up at the shrine, where the kami (spirits or gods) can read them. They tend to be fairly uniform in size and shape, but many have different pictures painted on them, of animals or other Shinto imagery, and they often have the word gan'i (願意), meaning "wish", written along the side. Stereotypically, the image on the plaque would be of a horse, uma or ma in Japanese (馬); ema means, literally, "horse picture".　This name originates from the fact that real horses were once offered by the wealthy in exchange for blessings at shrines.

Beginning in the Edo period, during the peak of the popularity of the kabuki theatre, it became quite common for temples and shrines to be given ema by the Torii school of painters. The Torii held a near-monopoly on the production of signboards and other promotional materials for the kabuki theatres, and would donate large paintings, on wooden boards, of kabuki actors to the shrines. Despite depicting what might be seen as an unusual subject for the religious context, these paintings were well-received, and incorporated with the shrine's other religious icons.

Unlike in most Western traditions, where one prays to revere, praise, and bless God, in Shinto, people tend to ask the kami for a wide variety of things, ranging from world peace to good scores on the next exam. At some of the more central and popular shrines, such as Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, one can find ema in many languages, as tourists leave their own wishes and prayers.


(source: Wikipedia)