W ell, it seems I missed the bulk of the Sakura, which is a shame. That doesn't stop it being spring though, and pretty with a blend of other blossoms, buzzing of beesand whatnot... today viewed with a condiment of temples.
Asakusa is a very popular temple district. You find temples most anywhere in Japan. I'm positive I'll find one suddenly appear in my cupboard one day or something. gTemple districth implies the existence of a very big temple (filled with tourists), behind which will be several smaller ones. Turn the corner from these and there will be another even small temple, probably complete with an old woman. In the alley behind this there will be another tiny Shinto shrine, which is just up the road from another. The whole thing is like some very large, highly spiritual Russian doll.
Twas' all very pretty what with the blossoms veritably wafting through the courtyards on a breeze scented with delicate perfumes of spring and the combined smokey grease smell of a thousand street side food vendor.
I'd heard there was also a rather smart old market around the area. A little enquiring found me a few nice treasures. First were a selection of shops selling swords, fans, sandals and the usual tourist tat. Most of them were vending replicas, but quite unexpectedly I found a very possibly real one hidden among them. The fact that it was hidden was the first clue. The fact that the shop was tiny, cluttered, smelled heavily of lacquer, and contained two old men chatting was clue two through five. Clue six was the naked blades behind locked glass, clue six the extra couple of zeros on most every price tag.
Then there was the other sword shop. Similar to the Possibly Lesbian Nightclub I went to, there were clues swinging both ways (pardon the pun). The price was one zero higher, not two. There were naked blades on display, but they didn't look tempered, and were among other obviously tourist things such as the toy shruiken and sword catchers. The clincher was a naked blade not locked behind glass. Looking at the edge, I could see the marks where it had been filed sharp! Either this was a clever fake sword vendor, or a real one who had learned how to gcatorh for tourists.
I also found a shop exclusively selling rocks. They were pretty rocks, I'll give them that, but rocks annoy me intensely. Ever noticed how a good bulk of anime (and other fantasy) stories go something along the lines of
- Schoolboy/schoolgirl is transported to magical kingdom.
- Goes on quest for rocks.
I mean, rocks! When have rocks been useful to us? Get a big one and you can wallop someone with it, quite hard even, if you have a catapult. Get lots nicely shaped ones and you can make walls. Stand on them and you can see a bit further... but why people are obsessed with pebbles having the power to destroy planets at the shake of a schoolgirl... I don't know. Sadly, none of the rocks in this shop were glowing with the power of ancient lost civilizations. I asked, and they said a new shipment was due in Tuesday.
Ancient civilisations transported to: 0
Ancient civilisations saved from certain destruction through application of rocks: 0
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