Saturday, June 23, 2012

A Saturday in the Shitamachi: Hakusan and Yanaka


A day of sun! Let the weather gods be praised for this break in the festival of downpours that is Japan's rainy season, which gave me a chance to go see the ajisai at Hakusan Shrine (with matching nails, no less!) Behold the glorious riot of pastel colours!


Thanks to the huge number of temples and shrines, most of the little streets of Bunkyo-ku seem to be redolent of incense, as well as gloriously quiet. As much as I enjoy the sparkling, oshare areas of Tokyo, hanging out in Yanesen seems to be truly good for the soul.


The kakigori at Himitsutou are really fabulous, since they do not use the common, awful sugary syrup. We tried the yogurt with amanatsu and the akashiso ones, and they were fantastic! Not too sweet, with the true flavours of the toppings coming through, and the ice is shaved with a hand-powered apparatus from the Showa era. I have officially changed my mind about kakigori.


Lunch was unfortunately both pricy and disappointing, and after wandering about a bit more we ended up at a matcha place right near the beginning of Yanaka Ginzan, semi-hidden by the stairs. The brown rice choux with sesame cream and matcha cream were impressive, and the matcha latte so strong that I may not sleep tonight!

9 comments:

  1. It is my considered opinion that the nail pastels rival - nay, conquer! - the flower pastels.

    PS: So was Yanesen's tranquillizing effect powerful enough to make you sleep despite the matcha latte?

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    1. Yay, thanks thats a big compliment coming from the ajisai queen :)
      And the matcha latte's effect was really potent!

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  2. Lovely nails and cell phone case :)

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  3. This post is so colorful, I love it ;-;

    I once stood in line for 2 hours in Kyoto for shaved ice at a famous place, and it was pretty awesome.

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  4. Such a chill spot. Love all the hydrangea growing around the gates. :)

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  5. ahhh everything looks amazing. I have a question for you... do you have any advice on getting a Japanese-using job in Japan, probably Tokyo? I'll be N1, in Japan, and looking for a job that starts around September... is that at all possible? Any advice? Thank you!

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    1. It is very difficult, I was quite lucky. I would recommend contacting a recruitment agency, of which there are several. To some extent N1 or N2 does not really matter, you also need to prove you have other skills as well(^_^)

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