Tokyo – Asakusa and Kappabashi
We have stayed in apartments in many countries. Some of them have been bigger. Some have been smaller. Some have had balconies, or patios, or yards. Some have overlooked rivers or railway lines. All of them have had horrible knives. Perhaps the people who offer these apartments never cook or perhaps they think they people who rent these apartments never cook or perhaps they don't want to be responsible for the clean up if someone gets injured by one of their knives. I'm not sure which it is, but the knives are always garbage-y things that you couldn't use to cut a soft boiled egg, which is somewhat of a problem when faced with a chicken that needs quartering or a pound of carrots that need to be turned into cubes. As it turns out, our apartment here suffers from the same problem, and so finding new (and better knives) was high on the list of priorities. And where better to hunt for knives than in Kappabashi, home of plastic food models and cooking supplies?
After a ride on the "not actually all that crowded but there still weren't any seats available" metro, we arrived in Tokyo.
We started off with a trip to the Buddhist shrine in Asakusa
and its teeming streams of koi
before wandering over to Aoi Marushin for a tempura lunch.
And then we were ready for the real business to begin. The all important walk over to Kappabashi and the hunt for the knives. (And a cutting board, which, for some reason, was also completely absent from the apartment.) Naturally, we got a little bit sidetracked.
First, by the shops selling plastic food models, which appear in all of the restaurant windows so that one knows what sorts of things they sell at that particular place. Here, the plastic models in the window indicate that this shop sells plastic food models, as well as plastic food key chains, plastic food magnets, and plastic food iPhone cases.
Then, by all of the shops selling Japanese dishes, and their chopstick displays. (Oddly, the apartment we're in also contains 3 mismatched chopsticks. Fortunately, we brought our own.)
Once we'd finally found the knife store and bought our knives, we were all pretty tired. After all, looking at a dozen stores full of tiny dishes and lacquered boxes and chopsticks and tea pots is exhausting, especially when your mother won't let you touch the 700,000¥ tea pot.
The only possible solution was to go find ice cream, which proved surprisingly difficult to do. Apparently, while Kappabashi sells things to make food, and plastic models of food, there isn't much in the way of actual food there. So we decided to walk back toward the shrine, since Teddy remembered seeing a place selling ice cream along the way. We rejected all of the places that only had soft serve…
Eventually we ended up with ice cream parfaits, complete with cornflakes in the middle (for crunch) and a candied egg yolk on top.
We got a little bit turned around heading back to the metro, and ended up along the Sumida River at sunset.
But we finally found our way back to the proper metro station, and its entertaining signs
and then back to Hiyoshi and our apartment.
After a ride on the "not actually all that crowded but there still weren't any seats available" metro, we arrived in Tokyo.
We started off with a trip to the Buddhist shrine in Asakusa
and its teeming streams of koi
before wandering over to Aoi Marushin for a tempura lunch.
And then we were ready for the real business to begin. The all important walk over to Kappabashi and the hunt for the knives. (And a cutting board, which, for some reason, was also completely absent from the apartment.) Naturally, we got a little bit sidetracked.
First, by the shops selling plastic food models, which appear in all of the restaurant windows so that one knows what sorts of things they sell at that particular place. Here, the plastic models in the window indicate that this shop sells plastic food models, as well as plastic food key chains, plastic food magnets, and plastic food iPhone cases.
Then, by all of the shops selling Japanese dishes, and their chopstick displays. (Oddly, the apartment we're in also contains 3 mismatched chopsticks. Fortunately, we brought our own.)
Once we'd finally found the knife store and bought our knives, we were all pretty tired. After all, looking at a dozen stores full of tiny dishes and lacquered boxes and chopsticks and tea pots is exhausting, especially when your mother won't let you touch the 700,000¥ tea pot.
The only possible solution was to go find ice cream, which proved surprisingly difficult to do. Apparently, while Kappabashi sells things to make food, and plastic models of food, there isn't much in the way of actual food there. So we decided to walk back toward the shrine, since Teddy remembered seeing a place selling ice cream along the way. We rejected all of the places that only had soft serve…
Eventually we ended up with ice cream parfaits, complete with cornflakes in the middle (for crunch) and a candied egg yolk on top.
We got a little bit turned around heading back to the metro, and ended up along the Sumida River at sunset.
But we finally found our way back to the proper metro station, and its entertaining signs
and then back to Hiyoshi and our apartment.
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