Yesterday we went shopping and bought many things, but the story of this post is what we did at the end of the day!
That’s the main building at Senso-Ji temple in Asakusa, which is Tokyo’s biggest temple. Much like Times Square or Sydney, this is a place to go to welcome the new year, and since it’s only a half hours walk from our hotel we went!
There were loads of people of course, and the crowds were apparently larger this year since two of Tokyo’s other popular new years spots had canceled (due to coronavirus). The temple complex was surrounded by colorful and delicious-smelling food vendors, and we spent a happy hour exploring them until the stroke of midnight.
Meat and chicken skewers were popular, as were dango, fried chicken and various forms of pancake. We saw non-alcoholic sake being served out of massive cauldrons, strange sugary (?) fruit dishes prepared in bowls made of ice and even French fries sold in assorted commemorative bags.
We think the above was an okonomiyaki-seller, which is a type of pancake full of vegetables. It was fascinating watching him make them so quickly.
These were small fish cooked on skewers. It wasn’t clear where or how they were actually cooked: could it be the sand they were stuck into was heated from below? If I hadn’t already eaten I may have tried one of these.
What really caught our eye were the sugared fruits – what we Australians call ‘toffee apples’. In addition to the apples they sugared grapes, pineapple, strawberries, mikan oranges and kiwifruit. Naturally we had to try these, and bought two apples, some grapes and a pineapple.
The apple was magnificent! The grapes were sublime (they exploded with juice when you broke the sugar coating)! The pineapple was… disgusting (it used a dried pineapple and was insanely sweet)! Overall though, absolutely worth the try.
Just before midnight the crowds coalesced around the main temple building and did a ten-second countdown to welcome 2023. It was raucous and fun, and I’m glad we went. Right after midnight Skytree (the giant tower in the above pic) even had a ‘Happy New Year’ message rotating around for people to see miles around.
Happy 2023 to everyone! Let’s hope it’s a great year 🙂