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Hot Pot meal with LOACHES

Loaches’s hot pot meal has been eaten in Asakusa since long ago. They were very easy to get as Asakusa is a riverside place. There is Sumida River.
I went to eat loaches’ hot pot. It had a very unique taste with like a muddy river smell  remained.
However, this unique taste seems to become popular. There are some loach’s restaurants in Asakusa. The picture is a loach’s restaurant named “Dozeu”.

I wento to “Dozeu” with my guests coming from Myanmar.

I was worried if she dislike the taste, but she said “it’s yummy.”. She seemed to eat similar taste fish in her own country.

Sliced green onions and sliced burdock were served to eat together with loaches.

Lastly, I like to eat eggs like this.

[DOZEU]

Adress:１－７－１２　Komagata Taito-ku,Tokyo

Tel:03-3842-4001

opening time:11:00am-9:00pm

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Unique cafe in Asakusa.

There are unique cafes in Asakusa.
One of them is the the Owl Cafe.
There is a person standing with Owl when walking on New Nakamise Street, that is an entrance of the Owl Cafe.
There are also rabbit cafés near the Kanji House. Now,Cat cafes can be seen in various places such as Asakusa,Akihabara,Shinjuku,Shibuya and Harajuku.I think cat cafe is the most popular.
You can see it closer than going to the zoo, so take a try to the unique animal cafe!!

Which  one do you think is the real owl ?

The right one is real one:) The white one is a soft toy.

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Unique fishing experience in Asakusa!?

There is a place where you can fish in Asakusa.

Actually it is not fishing, but scoping goldfishes.
It  is common in Japanese festivals, but here in Asakusa, you can play goldfish scooping !!

We scoop goldfishes  with thin paper surrounded by plastic frame called poi.

And try to scoop the goldfishes swimming in the pool.

It seems easily,but it is very difficult.

There is a little empty street on the left back of Sensoji Temple called “Nishi Sando Street”. The shop is on this street.

You can try it at 300 yen once, so let’s take a try scooping goldfishes!!

And next to that the shop is a melon bread shop I introduced before.

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Kamiya Bar in Asakusa

There is a nice bar in Asakusa called Kamiya bar.
The Kamiya bar is a very historical bar, crowded with local regulars.
There were air raids around Asakusa during the Second World War.
The Asakusa area became a burned land.
However, the building of this Kamiya bar was very rugged in Western architecture, so it remained without being blown away.

The local people of Asakusa who saw it decided to restore the city of Asakusa from this bar.
The city of this Asakusa is now made Kamiya bar swift.
So, the address of this Kamiya bar is” 1-1-1 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo”!
Now, the bar is on the first floor, the Western restaurant is on the second floor, and the Japanese cuisine restaurant is on the third floor.

It is also famous as Japan ‘s first bar.
Established in 1880, they began selling one glass of drink for the first time. Also, at this bar there is famous cocktail called Electric Blanc. In Japanese, “Denki Buran”. It is a cocktail based on brandy, and it is a very storong alcoholic.

Please visit this bar at the end of Asakusa sightseeing.

 

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Nice Tempura bowl restaurant in Asakusa!

Asakusa is famous for tempura rice bowl.
Tokyo was called Edo when samurai govened Tokyo, and people in Edo were called Edokko.

Edokko were busy, so tempura rice bowl became popular at Edo, cuz  they can eat tempura and rice at the same time, then they can save thier time.

The two tops of delicious tempura restauranteurs are  “Masaru” and “Daikokuya”.
Tempura in Asakusa is unique. They are fried in black sesame oil, so the color of tempura is deeper than usual ones.
It will be served like this picture.


There is impact. The big tempura is an eel.
I smell the river a little, but that is also the taste of Asakusa.
The owner  will feel free to talk to you very much. A lot of foreigners are coming, please do not hesitate to go. However, please be careful as it will be sold out if you go there late time. I recommended you go there around 11:30.

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The oldest stone bridge in Tokyo

Sensoji temple is the oldest temple in Tokyo, also the oldest stone bridge in Tokyo is in the same premises.

This is caled “Shakkyo”, literary meaning is stone bridge in Japanese. It was made in 1616 and now we can not pass because of preservation, but we can see it. Below that there is a small pond and large koi fishes are swimming in the pond. Opposite side, you can see a small beautiful waterfall. It is near the main hall. Please try looking for the oldest stone bridge.

The year of 1616 was the time Tokugawa Ieyasu died. Toshogu shrine was built in Asakusa. Toshogu is the tomb of Ieyasu, and the main shrine is located in NIkko ,136 kilometers away from Asakusa. At the time there were no cars and no train, so going to Nikko was a very difficult thing. Toshogu shrine  was built in Asakusa, so that anyone can visit Toshogu easily. And this stone bridge was made as a bridge connecting the sanctuary Toshogu shrine and the human world. Toshogu shrine’s main hall itself in Asakusa was destroyed with fire accident, but still Ieyasu seems to be beyond this bridge, and protect Tokyo’s peaceful.

This picture is in Nikko.

 

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A Bib Bell in Sonsoji Temple

There is a big bell a little away from Nakamise Street in Asakusa Temple.
When Tokugawa Shogun governed for Tokyo, such big bells were in Asakusa, Ueno, Kanda.Shinjuku etc. in Tokyo, and Buddhist monks  rang the bells and informed the time instead of the clock.

However, since most of them were used as materials for weapons during the Second World War, they are not left now. Meanwhile, there is a bell remained at Seonsoji Temple. During the wartime, the residents around Sensoji Temple, who did not want to use that bell as a weapon material, buried in the basement and hide it.
Feel the local love of the local residents of Asakusa, such a bell, please look for it.

The bell is the original one,but the bell tower was reconstructed after WW II.

 

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Raccoon story, No.2

Yesterday, I blogged about “Raccoon Street” in Asakusa and mentioned the story about run-away raccoon from Ueno.

There is another story about raccoon.

The raccoons ran away from Ueno settled in Asakusa,However, the raccoons mischieved for human, for exapmle, they threw sandals in the kettle or throw some sand into rooms. Human were very annoyed about that.One day, a monk of Asakusa’s Sensoji temple had a dream. In the dreams, the raccoons had declarations saying that “If you protect for us, we will protect Sensoji temple from fire accidents forever.” After that, the monk built a small shrine called “Chingodo” nearby Sensoji for raccoons. In the small shrine, there are some ornaments of raccoons. They are enshrined as gods.

Actually, when the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and Tokyo Air Raid in 1945 occurred, around Sensoji and Chingodo shrine was not burned away!!!

Raccoon protected us really!

But, the other side, it’s said to be that a big ginkgo tree protected this area from the big accidents, because ginkgo trees have lots of water in it. We can see the big ginkgo tree still now in side Chingodo shrine. The ginkgo tree survived from the big earthquake and Tokyo Air aid.

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Raccoon Street!?

There is a street which is called raccoon street in Asakusa.
There are 12 cute statues of raccoon there.
Why?

Until the late nineteenth century, there were many raccoons in Asakusa area. A civil war called Boshin War occurred in the nearby Ueno, and the raccoons in Ueno  ran away from Ueno to Asakusa and had settled in Asakusa.

However, a territorial dispute began and it was rough between the raccoon which originally lived in Asakusa and the raccoon who ran away from Ueno.

An Asakusa local raccoon called Tatsugoro calmed down and admonished the racconns telling, thanks to the Kannon of Sensoji Temple, we can live safely. Tatsugoro admonished them to keep peace and help people.

After Tatsugoro’s action, all the raccoon changed from roughness feeling to warm full feeling.  In particular, the 12 raccoon of them with strong sense of justice became gods after training. The 12 raccoon gods will answer people’s wishing if people stroke the raccoon’s belly while wishing.

The raccoons of the Raccoon Street are the gods.

Let’s search Raccoon Street and wish something to the raccoon gods!

 

 

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Melon taste bread(^^)v

There is a very delicious bakery in Asakusa. It is a bakery called Kagetsudo, where freshly baked melon taste bread is famous. There are other shops where melon taste bread are sold, but you should go to Kagetsudo.
And, depending on the store you can not eat freshly baked ones, so please go to the main store or Kaminarimon store.
It’s only 220 yen and you can eat crunchy melonpan ♪

It is the map of main store:

https://www.google.co.jp/maps/place/%E3%80%92111-0032+%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E9%83%BD%E5%8F%B0%E6%9D%B1%E5%8C%BA%E6%B5%85%E8%8D%89%EF%BC%91%E4%B8%81%E7%9B%AE%EF%BC%91%EF%BC%98%E2%88%92%EF%BC%91%EF%BC%91/@35.711502,139.7938668,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x60188ec6d42ccff5:0x7982048967e95565!8m2!3d35.711502!4d139.7960555

 

and the following is the Kaminarimon store.

https://www.google.co.jp/maps/place/%E3%80%92111-0032+%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E9%83%BD%E5%8F%B0%E6%9D%B1%E5%8C%BA%E6%B5%85%E8%8D%89%EF%BC%92%E4%B8%81%E7%9B%AE%EF%BC%97%E2%88%92%EF%BC%91%EF%BC%93/@35.7145461,139.7924584,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x60188ec04024b7d1:0xdd31598af62172d0!8m2!3d35.7145461!4d139.7946471

 

Also, some apple pies are available.