Chill Day in Asakusa (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 3)

I barely remember falling asleep last night. As I lay my head on my pillow I wondered what time that Joy and Fredrik would make it back home after their evening of tasty beverages of the adult sort. I knew that I needn’t worry, so I closed my eyes and apparently, fell immediately to sleep.

I had doubled my bedroll to give me more comfort and that seemed to do the trick. I remember only waking once that night so a very solid night of rest was had! I woke refreshed – at 6:30 am to find that Zach was already awake… Joy and Fredrik had shown up sometime in the middle of the night and I never heard them come in. Turns out they made it home not terribly long after I had retired for the night myself.

Both of us went downstairs and consumed the foods that we had bought the night prior in preparation for this morning’s need for breakfast and talked for a while. I did some photo editing and posted the link to my blog post from the day prior to Facebook, organized some photo files and caught up on news. Zach was playing a game on his Switch and then I remembered that I had packed mine as well so I relaxed and played Breath of the Wild for quite a while.

It was now around 10 am… Joy, Paulina and Fredrik were still fast asleep. I busied myself with more tasks on my MacBook and coordinated a meet up with Chris for that day.

Chris was going to take around 40 minutes by train to reach Asakusa, where we decided to meet up for some sort of good food to eat… we decided to walk there since it would only take about a half hour to reach Asakusa station and the weather was beautiful despite being rather humid.

Walking to Asakusa – typical average Tokyo neighborhoods are very quiet.

I saw the Tokyo Skytree along the way.

Art on the Sakurabashi Bridge in Tokyo on the way to Asakusa.

Once in Asakusa we decided on eating GyuKatsu at a tiny restaurant close to Senso-Ji – again you sat at the counter and could watch them prepare your food, which I find infinitely fascinating.

GyuKatsu – Beef Cutlet in citrus sauce with shredded daikon.

Food adventures continued on Orange Dori in Asakusa… this is a street lined with old shops and tourist traps alike, and alive with plenty of events almost year round. It is often packed with tourist both local and from afar and it is not difficult to see why with the variety of things to see and purchase there.

We personally were seeking sweet treats… our diligent search was rewarded at a place tucked into a building from the early 20th century… I wish that I knew the name of the place because it was quite cute. They tried to keep a style reminiscent of the 30’s or 40’s European-ish decor that was quite charming! We sat in comfy chairs and shared three desserts: Sweet Potato Ice Cream Sundae and a Matcha Ice Cream Sundae… also a red bean dessert that was just okay and not spectacular.

Sweet Potato Ice Cream and Matcha Ice Cream sundaes… along with some sort of red bean dessert that wasn’t as good.

Oh yay I look quite tired and my hair is quite angry about all of the humidity – so much for perfectly straightened hair!

After treats we headed to Akihabara to meet up with Joy and Fredrik… but before we did, one more treat right next to Yodobashi at the Akiba Station… Croissant Taiyaki at Gindaco… it was filled with roasted chestnut paste did not disappoint! That croissant crust was delicious and the texture would have been perfect if it hadn’t been just a little too done. The chestnut filing seemed a little too sweet but I have to wonder if perhaps my opinion about that was affected by the consumption of our other sweet treats not long prior to this.

Chris needed to go get some studying done so he split off from me and Zach and the two of us went to a store called Animate – my main reason for going was to find a few Persona 5 items and they definitely had a nice selection to chose from! A few things may have made it into a shopping bag and came along with me.

We met up with the guys and sat across from that Dragon Quest Lawson again… Zach went off to do something, I don’t exactly know what and I sat with Joy and talked a fair amount about all sorts of important matters as we do… then Zach came back and Fredrick showed up – Chris messaged and it turned out that he had been sitting perhaps 100 feet away when he messaged asking where to meet up with us!

We settled on going to an izakaya that wasn’t terribly far away – I do not recall the name of the place and apparently forgot to check in on Swarm so I can’t find it now… you will understand the whys of this thing as you read on…

Toward the beginning of our evening at an izakaya – I was only a little tipsy at this point.

We laughed and talked and ate… I had a yuzu shochu, which is plenty enough to get me tipsy… ordered more food and Chris had a bottle of warm sake brought out with glasses for everyone… one glass later and I was definitely feeling it and was getting just a little more silly than usual… Joy didn’t enjoy the warm sake (he prefers cold) so I drank his down too.

Another round of warm sake came out, another cup poured for me… then I finished the last cup after my last chicken and leek yakitori… things were definitely a bit wobbly for me after that, but I was having a gooooood evening! It was decided that we should go to the amusement center in the Donki building down the street for some DDR and ufo catchers – everything was so hilarious that I could not contain my laughter… in the photo below, I remember watching Fredrik try to win an adorable Shiba Inu stuffed animal, but for the life of me I cannot remember what was so funny!

“You’re not drunk… I’M drunk… why is this crane game so funny?!” haha

Joy tried to win a prize… the Shiba that I wanted – psh. That was not pleasing because he did (but I was also happy for him)

Joy won this Shiba – on the first try. That’s an expensive stuffed toy for only 100 Yen!

I played for a shiba too… I won a little baby shiba! Not certain how I had my wits about me enough to win this haha.

Wan Wan! I won a little shiba in a shiba hoodie on MY first try!

At this point Chris decided to leave because he was very sleepy as he is having a difficult time adjusting to the Tokyo time zone on this trip, poor guy. I then tried my hand, I mean feet at Drunk DDR… I did surprisingly well according to Joy, who mentioned that I was impressing the local Japanese guy at the machine next to me. I attribute my accuracy to the fact that I only played charts that I practically know by heart so that took any of the alcohol hinderance away from the equation.

Three rounds of DDR later, I cut myself off for fear of falling off of the pad or dehydrating myself too much. Silly Boo, Joy and Fredrik all had a merry ride home on the train and a relaxing early Autumn walk home. Excellent excellent day!