Day 18 - Asakusa

 04/04/2023

Asakusa

Rule at bnb+ hostel Ueno, ladies could enter the male hostel but no males allowed to step into femals hostel.

Went to look for my kids to share the sponge cakes.

Super cute and surprisingly tasty, so fluffy and soft...

Our accommodation in this little red building shared with a night club.  It's either the night club got no business or the sound proof was super powerful, we couldn't hear a thing.

Luis' friend told him to try mid wings from here.

There's no sittings and we had to stand on the street to eat.

It's nice on the first bite but became over powering soon, kinda dry and too much powdered seasonings coated on the wings.

Found Hai Di Lao in Ueno waahaahaahaa...

We had looked for photo studios in Osaka and Kyoto both did not accept male customers in kimono.  We found Cocomo rental in Asakusa, so we went for it and visit Sensoji Temple at the same time.

We told them we wanted a photoshot, made an appointment and paid the deposit. I had been wanting to wear a normal kimono to go walk walk but all rentals were fully booked when I looked into Klook. I asked them if I could rent a costume on the spot and they took me in. While I was dressing up, I looked at the surroundings, the more I looked, the more familiar this place seemed.......

I finally realized this was it:

This is the link in case this Youtube video won't play - https://youtu.be/AEs_1PiBoj0

Long story short, this Taiwanese celebrity visited this shop not too long before we did, and had nothing nice to say about them.

It was too late as we already paid the deposit... I was very worried and upset, perhaps this was the reason why I didn't enjoy Sensoji Temple.  We saw nothing but crowd.

They had a range of yukata (but tourists would take them as kimono) for about S$38.  I didn't even bother to look at them and took this real solid black piece for about S$50.

However they didn't have a good range of handbags for me to chose, just took this old woven basket.  The rental include the little cap, socks and clogs.  They also do simple plaiting or bun for customers with long hair.

I tried to smile, being worried wouldn't help.

I am not the high light in this pic lolxx...

Hur hur...

I think kimono hides my fat pretty well.

Close up of the beautiful fabric.

Darren went to pick his fortune.

Although the costume could be worn till 6pm, I returned it after 2hrs cos I was hungry, didn't want to eat and dirty it, they would charge for laundry.

This was their shop front, they were located at the second floor.

They had 2 rows of costumes along the passage way, the end was their makeup stations.

When we reached, an ang mo just finished her photoshot and what the studio did for her was just what we wanted.... GORGEOUS!  It was a great relieved, we hoped for the best, putting the Taiwanese video behind us.  We had our photoshot a few days later, everything went well, we were very very happy with the results.  You guys will get to see the photos on Day 24.

A bit more of Asakusa.

Should had taken this shot with kimono.

This Luis kid took the kimono photoshot with me, he was beautiful lolxx...

Early dinner.

The restaurant was quiet, we were here in odd hour.

Huge damage but food not bad.

Is it called snake fish or something??  Outside Asakusa Donki.

Shops closed, no more crowd, kinda regret not seeing the temple with night lights.  But again we were very exhausted at that time already.

Back to Ueno, walked pass the park.

Would be nice to stroll but I was too tired already.

Ueno at night.

Went to the onsen and bath before going back to the hotel.

Day 19 we set off to Hakone.  Supposed to be the high-light of our trip to see Mt Fuji, ended up was a disaster.  Thank you for reading and come back for our unbelievable stories in Hakone.