Asakusa (pronounced Asaksa) is a very lively neighborhood that
I already visited two days ago to take in the Sensoji Temple, Asakusajinja
Shrine and a famous shopping strip of Nakamise. So this is where
I came back tonight deciding to stick around to see if the temple
looks nice in the dark with the spotlights.While waiting for the
dark to settle I had dinner.
Since our previous efforts at dinners were rather unsatisfying
I decided not to experiment too much and just stepped into the first
respectable looking sushi place I came across. It was one of those
spots where the small plates with sushi go round on a conveyor belt
and you just pick up whatever you like and then pay according to
the number of plates you accumulated. Different colored plate -
different price. (We used to have one of these in the World Financial
Center, but I don't know if it's still around.) Somehow most of
the stuff I liked fell into 120 yen category, there were also few
cheaper items, like regular tuna, for instance, and some really
expensive (500 yen) disgusting looking things. Beauty of this sort
of place for a foreigner is that you don't have to know a word of
Japanese to feel completely comfortable. As long as you know enough
to recognize all the items you need, you are all set.
Don't know how high this joint would be rated among Japanese, but
as far as I was concerned the food was better than the average fare
you would get at a typical New York Japanese restaurant. I was rather
hungry and managed to accumulate about 8 plates before getting my
fill, which basically meant that my dinner cost me 1,000 yen or
less than $10, and no waiting time. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
So far I've had sushi three times. First time Lena's friend Ida
took us to a nice place for lunch, sushi there was excellent but
she had to order for us. Second time we got a take out with my cousin,
prepackaged box of sushi. That was barely passable even by NY standards
and included some stuff that I don't eat, like octopus (too chewy
even for me) and sea urchin (too disgusting even to look at). And
this place. I only picked the stuff I recognized: yellow tail, some
other white fish (I like most of those), eel, shrimp (the normal
kind, not the gellied one that they seem to prefer), crab. All of
it was very good.
After refueling I walked around Asakusa for about an hour, browsed
through all the tiny shops lining the streets and decided on what
I wanted to get for myself before leaving. Didn't buy anything yet,
though. And, of course, I did get to see the temple and the surroundings.
Quite pretty:
Complete album: Asakusa
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