I'm getting a little fed up of missing half the day because all my friends here like to stay up late and therefore sleep late too. We never get to things when they open so today, for once, I decided to go early. Katharina also liked the idea of an early start so I arranged to meet her at 10:00 and everyone else at 13:00 so they could recover from whatever they were doing the night before.
As it turns out I was horribly late. I never seem to judge the times on the Keihen Tohoku line very well and arrived at Asakusa 15 minutes late and then couldn't find Katharina so ran about like a fool. I always have trouble finding this girl!! On this occasion, I spotted the black coat and matching boots of my German friend in the distance so all was well.
The Sanja Matsuri is a huge festival in Asakusa every year (or is it every other year...I don't remember). It's held on the third Sunday of May and the two preceeding days. On the Friday they have a parade but we had school so we couldn't attend. On the Saturday and Sunday, the three shrines are carried from temple to temple for blessings from 06:00 to 20:00. While we walked around we would see this little gold thing bobbing about in the distance as it went past. Then another one would come in the opposite direction. And of course, not forgetting, half the men carrying these things about weren't wearing trousers. Traditional festival wear for men calls for loin cloth type attire rather than pants whatever your shape or age. Nice...
Asakusa is normally a busy place anyway but today it was mental. But along with the millions of people, there were a ton of extra food stalls. We had a great time walking about trying to decide what we wanted to eat when everyone else arrived. Picked up a sesame bun thing while we waited which was om nom nom^^
By 12:00 my legs were getting tired so I suggested we walk back up to meet the rest of the people, and maybe buy a souviner along the way. We went for Chinese new year related goods, Katharina getting a snake charm and me a chicken. Sorry, I don't have a picture as I haven't unwrapped it yet.
So we went to the meeting spot and waited. We made a bet who would arrive in which order and I won round 1 by picking Jonna. She arrived maybe 5 minutes early. And so we waited...and waited........eventually at 13:25 we decided that enough was enough and we would give up at 13:30. Luckily Dani and Alberto arrived 2 minutes later. They informed us that Ken was with Nana so was unlikely to come and the train that Nino would come on was delayed due to what we think was a suicide. Rosanna, we had no idea where she was. Tried calling but got no answer. And so it was just the five of us.
We fought our way through the crowd and had a look at the fun stuff that was for sale. Then we got down to the food part where we all bought a bunch of random things to eat. I had Pikachu cakes, Katharina had Takoyaki with quail eggs, Dani had the biggest burger in the world, and Alberto a giant okonomiayki type thing. Jonna was still hung over so she passed on eating. Had a laugh talking about random things with the boys. Made a bet with Alberto that if he could finish his okonomiyaki of doom I would catch a pigeon for him. Yeah, strange bet but that's what he wanted as a prize.
At 16:00 Ken called to say he was on the train coming to us. His girlfriend had just gone to work so with nothing to do he thought he'd turn up 3 hours late. Unfortunatly for him, we were all knackered. Katharina and I had been there for 6 hours already, and the rest were all suffering from alcohol related issues. The girls went home but I couldn't let Ken come all the way to Asakusa and have us all leave so I decided to stay there with him for an hour or so. The Spaniards stayed too. We looked at t-shirts and lolled at ken buying ninja shoes. Seriously, those things look mega uncomfortable. By this point I couldn't take it anymore and had to head home. It was a fun day, though after a very long weekend, exhausting :(
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