Asakusa

Yesterday we were given a tour of Asakusa from an old family friend who resides there. He is an “Edoko”, a 3rd generation Tokyo native. Apparently, it takes three generations before you get to carry the Tokyo native membership card. I’m not sure if it gets you into the hottest clubs or not, or even if it at least provides car insurance on rentals, but I am sure it is an honor nonetheless.

Anyways, sources tell me it is the same way for “Parisians”. You’re not a Parisian unless your parents and their parents were born and raised in Paris.

My grasp of Japanese is still pretty close to non-existent, but even I was able to tell that he had an Edoko accent. They can’t pronounce the “h” sound so he prounces Asahi, “Asashi.” And when he says, “You’re welcome”, he says “Doi Tamashte” instead of “Doi Tashi-Maste.”

Speaking of Asahi, a fine beer, that’s a picture of their headquarters to the right. They used to have the brewery there in the city, but no longer. That piece of gold on top is supposed to be beer foam. Is anyone getting thirsty?

In any case, I won’t bore you with all the history of Asakusa, as I cannot remember much, but instead will point you to my photo set on Flickr, in case you are interested in seeing more photos.

But I will mention that the day prior, we were in a mall when we ran into Harry here on the left. The mall had a couple of animatronic dinosaurs on display. Their movements were quite impressive and not at all machine like, except for the fact that they mostly repeated their motions over time and they didn’t pounce on me, rip out my jugular, and drink in my blood. That’s what I would expect if they were to act lifelike.