Trip to Japan: Day 4

On day four of our vacation we went to the biggest city in the entire world, Tokyo! We learned of this cool little place called Asakusa. Asakusa is the center of Tokyo's shitamachi, "low city", one of Tokyo's few districts, which have preserved a certain atmosphere of the old Tokyo. 

For many centuries, Asakusa used to be Tokyo's leading entertainment district. During the Edo Period, when the district was still located outside the city limits, Asakusa was the site of kabuki theaters. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, modern types of entertainment, including movies, set foot in Asakusa. Large parts of Asakusa were destroyed in the air raids of World War II. While the area around the rebuilt Sensoji (the temple) has regained its former popularity after the war, the same cannot be said for Asakusa's entertainment district.

It had a very large street with a canopy over it and along both sides were tons and tons of little shops. 

Since Asakusa is one of the few destricts that still strives to preserve old Tokyo you can find things like professional old fashion doll makers, wooden shoe makers, and candy makers. It was pretty cool.

We then headed to Asakusa's main attraction, a very popular Buddhist temple, Sensoji, which was built in the 7th century. 

There was a shrine at the front of the temple but tourist were not allowed in so this was the best picture I could get of it. 

At the front of the shrine and the temple there were these huge metal containers that people would throw money in and pray to the shrine... we felt a little weird being there and watching people do there thing but it was interesting. 

There was some very cool paintings on the ceiling though, I always wonder how long it took people to paint things like this and how uncomfortable it must have been doing so...

Anyway. The we made our way to Tokyo Tower!

Close to Tokyo Tower we found this cute little set up that was kind of hidden behind some bushes. I thought it was pretty! 

Tokyo Tower is 333 meters high and is 13 meters taller than its model, the Eiffel Tower of Paris, and the world's tallest self-supporting steel tower. It was completed in the year 1958 as a symbol for Japan's rebirth as a major economic power. There were two main observatories, we went up the the first one, 150 meters and got to see all of this...

You really got to see how big Tokyo actually was! We had planned on going all the way to the top but that was only if the weather really good because we wanted to see Mt. Fuji, but it was too cloudy. This is us in the tower...

They did have a few places that had observation windows that you could walk on top of glass and look straight down... there was a lady there that reminded me of my mom... the lady was freaking out and I think my mom would have too =D Love you mom:)

Then it was time to go home and Gabriel fell asleep in Josh's arms! 

When you travel with a baby you always have to try to make it back to your hotel early. So to some people it may seem like we don't do that much in one day but it's as much as you can do with a baby. That and transportation took forever in Japan and you have to walk a lot which kills time too. It didn't bother us though, Josh and I are pretty laid back and like to relax on vacation so getting back to the hotel early was perfect for us!