Asakusa

Cammie and I packed up and moved to a different hotel or hostel today located in Asakusa.  This is a cute part of Tokyo and said to be the old part of town.  We took a stoll through the Senso-ji temple in which the little shops surrounding the outside is more fun than the actual temple.  The mainly sell souvenirs and food.   

This guy is making fresh rice crackers.  Yum yum.  I've never tried rice crackers freshly made and they were so delish!

I was fascinated with this orange tree on the temple grounds.  Seriously, look at the size and perfection of those oranges.  Its not like we're in California where there is sun a plenty! 

Me in front of Senso-ji Temple.

I didn't know what these were, but they looked delicious.  Each lolly-pop has a piece of fruit in the middle and they are wrapped in some sort of gel or sugar and kept on a block of ice. 

The temple grounds were packed full of people.  You never really get used to how little space you don't have. Everyone is running into you at all times and you shuffle your feet everywhere you go because the crowd doesn't move fast enough.  We made a visit to Shibuya Crossing tonight which is said to be the busiest pedestrian crossing road in the world.  When the green light hits you can walk across the street in any direction you choose, even diagonal.  

What is Pachinko?  I have been seeing Pachinko all over the place and truely don't understand this game.  There are a bunch of little metal balls falling down and its ten times louder than walking through the slot machines in Vegas.  When the doors open to walk into the pachinko parlor, a cloud of smoke bellows out and the noise sounds only like a bunch of racket, not good.  On Wikipedia it says that because gambling is illegal in Japan, the metal balls that you win are exchanged for tokens which can be exchanged for cash outside the parlor at places that are usually associated with organized crime. 

We were highly amused with the photo booths in which you take a photo and have the opportunity to decorate your picture on the computer screen with a pen all the while children's music is playing.