After Tsukiji Market, we met my dad's cousin Jun Ebisawa at a train station to explore the city with him. Jun was easy to spot with his long hair and Hard Rock Cafe shirt on - or, more likely, we were the ones that were easy to spot for him. Jun has traveled a good amount in his lifetime and his English was very good. With a shared love of guitars and a good sense of humor we hit it off right away.
Jun hid his dissapointment that we had already been to see the SkyTree because it would have been a good excuse for him to play tourist there, too. But he took us to some great places we wouldn't have seen ourselves and was an excellent tour guide answering all our many, many questions.
Jun first took us first to one of his favorite temples in Tokyo: Asakusa.
I'm always impressed by the attention to detail in both the artwork and cleanliness of the temples.
Waving the smoke from the incense over your head is supposed to help your mind & intellect. Before entering the temple, you are supposed to wash hands and mouth symbolizing being clean enough to enter.
If you come to the temple with a wish or a question you can get a written fortune. The instructions say to shake a box of sticks (the sticks have the numbers for a drawer written on them), one stick will fall out with your drawer number, then you open the drawer to receive your paper. Mine said something about the person I was waiting for would be a little late but would come - fitting since I was thinking about having baby #3.
After the temple, Jun taught us how to eat soba (buckwheat) noodles properly, dipping individual bites in the sauce. Afterwards I was surprised as he asked the waiter to bring us some water that the noodles had been boiled in. The waiter came back with this red tea-pot of sorts. Jun poured the hot water into our sauce bowls. I was shocked at how simply adding cooking water to the sauce turned it into a flavorful soup to sip. Delicious!
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