Japan Day 2

Making Rice Crackers, a photo by zostra on Flickr.

Several of our hosts took us around the Asakusa region of Tokyo today, before heading to Ota where we will spend several days. The first place they took us was the "cookware street" where all of the restaurant and cooking supply shops are. Heaven! I only wish I could transport the entire street back home. The street is called Kappabashi, after a mythical creature called a Kappa who used to swim in the river there (I guess until the river got paved over). He/she has a turtle's shell and a human head, although there are many different depictions of it that look wildly different. After that we went to the Senso-ji temple and surrounding buildings, then had soba for lunch. With the help of our hosts I was able to order cold soba with yam and wasabi leaf, which was somewhat bland, but tasty. We then headed to a small craft museum, went and picked up our luggage, and on the way to the train instead of the "American-style coffee break" that was originally planned they took us to the Kamiya bar, the oldest bar in Tokyo, where they ordered me a very tasty whiskey sour. The train ride to Ota took about an hour and a half. Ota seems to be a very typical town, but very, very hot and humid. Even more so than Tokyo. We had an amazing dinner, and the catered to my crazy dietary restrictions by plying me with three kinds of tofu with different sauces, various vegetables, rice soup with pickled ume (plums), great Japanese beer, and another sour (this one grapefruit). I slept well. Today's my first presentation to the teachers, fingers are crossed.