Up an at ‘em around 7:30am today as we spotted a poster yesterday that said you could go to Nihombashi and watch some Rekishi (Sumo wrestlers) training at their stable. Looked it all up on t’Internet and it seemed like a bloody good idea and not too far on the tube either (same area we’d gone to see the Miura Anjin Memorial). 

Determined to get there and get it done we skipped breakfast, which went down well in certain quarters. Official Tracey Chuntering Forecast: light to moderate. Toddled off to the nearest tube station. In the rush hour. Was the train packed? Yep – just a tad. Not quite to the extent of having to use pushers to get everyone on but certainly relatively sardine-tin-like. If it had been London people would have thought “Erm, I might wait for the next one” but not in Tokyo. On you get and suck it up buttercup. Not too many stops though so just a very mild touch of claustrophobia.

Once back into the light again we (stupidly) tried to find the stable using the ever reliable Google Maps. Which of course took us in the wrong direction before making us walk round in circles. Get used to these rants about it by the way, it’s going to be a recurring theme.

Eventually after circumnavigating the area more times than was strictly necessary we found the place. 

And they’d just finished. Because of course they had. Official Chris Chuntering Forecast:  moderate to heavy, occasional gusts. They were still hanging about though and very patient with the gaggle of people who’d turned up (many, like us, just too late) and wanted photos taken with them. Top tip – get up REALLY early if you want to see these guys and ignore bloody Google Maps.  

Once they all pedalled off into the morning sun we started looking round for a suitable place to get breakfast (Tracey Chuntering Forecast: moderate, increasing steadily) but despite wandering down lots of back streets and coming across several inviting looking cafes, nothing seemed to be open until much later. Bummer. Once we got onto the main drag the prospects looked much better but again, nothing open until later. Double Bummer.

Just as we were going to bin the whole idea and just go back to Asakusa when the clouds parted (metaphorically – it was a blazing hot sunny morning) and a beam of celestial light broke through to illuminate…Jonathan’s Restaurant! 

Proper Top Tip. If you are in Japan and are looking for somewhere to get a decent breakfast with unlimited drinks (endless coffee from the drinks bar!) in a nice environment at a genuinely fair price, Jonathan’s is your friend. Or Gusto. But especially Jonathan’s. This was the first one we’d found and we went looking for them afterwards in the mornings as their breakfast set (and all their food to be honest) was fantastic value. Bacon, eggs and sausage plus toast or similar and the unlimited drinks bar for under 600 Yen (about £4 at the time of writing). Bear in mind that one Starbucks iced coffee is about 500 Yen! And they take credit cards too which is a major plus factor at times. Oh, and they do melon soda too - it’s all win.

As a personal aside, it also let me use the “breakfast set” ordering Japanese that I’d specifically worked on with Yuka. I'd actually practiced on the Gusto menu but the hotel restaurant just did a buffet breakfast so I didn't need it. Jonathan's is pretty similar though. 

After a very agreeable breakfast we wombled back on the tube to Asakusa to see if we could fit in a river cruise up the Sumida River before the local Matsuri (festival) procession started. Weren’t really sure what that was going to entail but having Googled it (once we actually found out what was going on with all the wooden structures above doorways in the area!) it looked like it would be a full on spectacle and we didn’t want to miss it. Not a problem. You can do the cruise in about an hour and a half if you don’t get off at any point.

In retrospect we perhaps could have rescheduled to when we had more time and got off at the park we saw later but there you go: 20-20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. Duly booked the cruise and it actually started about two minutes after we got on board so good timing there!

Normally I’m not a huge fan of river tours but this one is excellent and you do get to see Tokyo from a very different angle, especially the really modern riverside properties butting right up against ones that have obviously been there since Tokugawa was a lad. Crap historical reference there but I like to at least appear cultured occasionally. “Appear” is the best I can do unfortunately.

The boat was pretty full when we got on board so we found a couple of the remaining seats at the side and watched Tokyo pass by, sustained by a couple of (soft) drinks from the bar (it was still early!) Tracey playing her famous role of “Hilda Madwoman Goes On Holiday” and waving to everyone on the river walk, other boats, bridges etc. They generally waved back. Probably in fear that she’d follow them home and stand outside their house waving for the rest of their lives if they didn’t. By the way, there are a ludicrous amount of bridges over the river, I lost count early on. The multilingual voice over helps though.

After the first stop of three the boat emptied considerably so we took the opportunity to run to the back and grab a seat on the stern seats (as in 'rear', not as in 'strict'...Anyway) Much better view and far easier to take panoramic photos. So we did. A lot. 

Also, we were later joined at the back by a group of very friendly Japanese people, one of whom turned out to be a Korean singer and actor called SungJae Choi who's been in Cats and Phantom of the Opera! I had a genuinely interesting chat (well, I thought it was, he may have been bored silly, eh SungJae :-)  ) about Japan, music etc for the remainder of the return leg of the journey. His English is way better than my Japanese and his Japanese is excellent so we managed to hold a conversation in a mixture of both and that’s what matters. We swapped Facebook addresses before we said goodbye to him and his friends. New Facebook friends – it’s what it’s all about. 

Following the river cruise, we headed off towards the festivities of Sanja Matsuri at Sensoji. Bearing in mind the last time I went earlier in the week it was 6am and there were about a dozen people about.

Normally it’s just very busy. Today however it was HEAVING with people and stalls, all the way from Kaminarimon down both sides of the Nakamise street to the temple itself. After grabbing our first kakigōri (shaved ice with flavouring – bit like a Slush Puppy – melon is ace!) we installed ourselves under the Hozomon gate and waited for the procession to start. And waited. And waited a bit more. Ok, we might have got there a tad early. Mind you, so had Sunjae and crew as we spotted them in the crowd :-)

Still, probably just as well as we had rocked up early as, once the head of the procession got near us, the whole area became wall to wall and shoulder to shoulder people. But we were right at the front. More win!

The procession was (almost) endless once it started and we had a great view of the participants, from kids to veterans, geisha (or at least people dressed as such) to people dressed as cranes. Once it calmed down a bit we managed to get up onto the balcony of Sensoji itself and get a better overall view. Wished I’d brought a zoom lens. Ah well, there’s always the crop tool later.

Lots of drum banging and general festivities later the crowd partially disbursed so we wandered around watching the various groups doing….well actually, no clue what they were doing but it was all quite intense (see photos – any explanations welcomed!) 

Starving hungry by this point we toured the stalls that were all around the grounds of Sensoji for the festival and decided to get okonomiyaki (sort of savoury Japanese pancake-ish) which then became a mission to try in different cities at it varies so much around the country. Later note – pretty easy to make at home so it’s been on the menu regularly since getting back. Take a bit of practice to get the batter the right consistency but even I can make it!) 

Once we’d shoved that down our faces (didn’t take long it was delicious!) we had a quick look round the rest of the stalls then walked back into the main part of Asakusa to have a better look round the place in the daylight, especially the part round Don Quiote, and area of which we’d only really scratched the surface.

Much much mooching about later we headed back to the hotel to dump the gear and have a brief rest before the evening explore.

But what was this on the road back? Why that’ll be an origami store which we’d not seen before.

Tracey was in like a rat up a pipe. Ok like a bee to honey. Oh whatever, sort out your own metaphor – she was in love with the place. Endless stacks of different sizes of paper in every colour and pattern you could imagine and example models which I still can’t quite believe you can make from just squares of the stuff.

Eventually Tracey had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the place or we would still be there today. I did ask at one point if they had a vacancy for a crazy English assistant but they politely declined. Really nice people though and they gave me some sweets while I was waiting which were like miniature Kendal Mint Cake. Tried to find them in shops later but never did manage to track them down.

Rucksacks full of enough paper to make origami cranes until the next century we nipped back round to the hotel for the previously planned R&R. One thing we did sort out was to fill out the forms for Takkyubin'ing one of our suitcases to our next hotel in Tokyo after our trip to Kyoto and Hiroshima. Silly dragging around gear you don't need. The desk clerk was really incredibly helpful (and I honestly think a bit relieved I spoke at least some Japanese as his English wasn't great, although better than my Japanese) and between us we got it sorted. Well, I tried to answer the questions and he wrote out the form as I'd have had no clue. Still at this point not totally convinced the service would work (spolier alert: it did. This is Japan. Everything works!) we packed everything we didn't need for a week into one case and then ventured back out to Asakusa in the early evening… 

…and the partying was still going on. Several times we came upon huge groups of people following or carrying mobile shrines that apparently have a God in them which has to be shaken to wake the god up and bring good luck. At least that’s what we were told by one of the crowd. Not convinced it has to be shaken that much or for that long accompanied by that much shouting though. If I was the God I’d be too busy dealing with a banging headache and motion sickness to bring anyone anything! To be fair though, it’s a good excuse for a bloody great party and I’m fairly sure there was a choko of sake involved somewhere along the line.  

Once we’d stood to watch a couple of these mini processions go noisily by we did our nightly search for a place to stuff our faces (there’s a consistent theme of food and drink in this trip eh!) and eventually manged to get a seat at the counter of a yakitori restaurant. Lots and lots of meat on a stick followed, washed down with, yep, beer and sake. You expected what exactly?

Again, really friendly people (Pochi made a new friend) and I’m still of the opinion that at least trying to speak Japanese, even at the horrible standard of mine, did make a difference. I think it did. A bit. Maybe they just took pity on the poor old Gaijin who was going slightly cross-eyed trying to put a sentence together that didn't sound like a three year old. Actually, come to think of it, I’d probably have taken that level over the nonsense I came out with on a regular basis. 

More bumbling around until we started to flag and binned it at a disconcertingly early time. Look, we’d been up early remember?! Anyway, with a slight pause to marvel at the fact that restaurants are able to have huge Koi carp swimming about in a pond outside (they’d last ten minutes if you tried that in the UK) we trudged wearily back to the hotel and fell asleep in seconds.

Night campers!