Re: Hey can you email me

So this morning i got up and made it to breakfast for the first time
since vacation started... We left right after breakfast for Asakusa
(the traditional area of the city to the northeast) and began our
'pilgrimage' to Sensoji, one of the most famous temples in Japan. It
is home of the Asakusa Kannon, in art history, one of the coolest
pieces I've studied, and in general one of the most important
bodhisattvas in the whole Buddhist canon. The whole 10-block area of
the temple is crowded with rows and rows of 6ft wide shops and food
vendors, and as nuts as it all seemed because of the throngs of
people visiting for Oshogatsu, or the New Year ceremonies, I'm told by Otoosan it is very much like this all year.

On the way home we toured through a district that sells everything
under the sun for do-it-yourself gourmets and restaurants, including
the plastic food that everyone displays in the front of their
eateries - more expensive than you'd think! I was drooling over all
the cool stoneware and bamboo steamers! Was trying to figure out
which things wouldn't be too heavy or too large to ship home... ;-) I
guess I'll keep dreamin'....

Next we stopped in Ueno, a huge city center, one of the biggest train stations in the city, and surrounded by tons of shopping arcades,
izakayas, open-air markets, and the gigantic park that is home to
several museums including the Tokyo National. I followed Okaasan
through an enormous fish market full of things I would never buy with
dinner in mind, like live octopus, and whole sundried turtle for
about 60000Y or more than $500 each.

We came back to the home neighborhood, Kagurazaka, and struck out at 3 restaurants - all still closed for the holiday week - and ended up
having lunch in a tiny Chinese place upstairs from a locally-renowned niku-man (steamed buns with meat inside) counter. Chinese niku-man are a favorite here, and so the restaurant is always crowded
because it is run by the same folks that make the famous buns.

All in all not a bad for being home by 2:30! Now its really really time to hit the books; japanese exam in the morning, even if it is
the first day back! I'll be heading shortly to a nice coffee shop
nearby where the second floor is always quiet. Nice place to study...

More soon...
-Alicia