Day 11
Asakusa and Ikebukuro
We got up early Sunday morning to visit Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. Sunday is always the most crowded day, but with our trip coming to an end, we had to brave the crowds! We walked up the main shopping street, Nakamisedori, to visit the temple. There are a lot of snack stands and gift shops along the street, but it was just too packed for us to try anything right away.
(Lynnette's Note: I went to Sensoji multiple times on my 2nd trip to Japan in 2002, since I was staying in the area, but it was Eri's first time. It's the largest temple in Tokyo, so it's worth a visit!)
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After visiting the temple and taking pictures, we headed toward a different shopping street in search of a snack. Our friend told us about a bakery called Kagetsudo that specialises in jumbo sized melon pan. We hadn't looked up where it was, but stumbled upon one of the locations. Melon pan is one of our favourite treats! It’s a sweet bread, shaped with a lattice pattern on top that resembles a melon’s skin. The name comes from the look, not the flavor.
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They also serve ice cream at Kagetsudo, and even make a melon pan ice cream sandwich— which we’ll have to try next time. I got sakura ice cream and Lynnette got a jumbo melon pan.
Since there were so many souvenir shops in the area, we did a lot of our shopping for friends and family, despite the crowds on Nakamisedori.
Once we were done shopping, we took the walk over to the Tokyo Skytree so we could have lunch at their food court. It was super crowded and took us a while to finally find a seat. Once we were done eating we continued shopping! We visited the Rilakkuma store, as well as the Jump Shop, Sanrio store and the Pokemon Centre. It's a huge mall, but we had a limited time to look around, as we were meeting up with a friend later.
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We then headed up to Ikebukuro for more anime shopping! Our friend took us to ‘Otome Road’ which is a section of anime shops geared towards female fans. We bought more Haikyuu!! goods and then stopped at Mr. Donut for coffee and donuts.
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After a long day we finally headed back to our Airbnb to rest and get ready for our final day in Tokyo.