Sanja Festival
Tonight is the Sanja Festival in Tokyo - I’m not sure what it was celebrating but MAN, that was krazy with a 'k'... the different neighbourhoods here in Asakusa have to carry their portable shrines through the streets, bouncing and chanting “Asa-KUSA Asa-KUSA!” as they go. They are lead by a band of drummers and flute players being towed in a wagon. The place was packed, the crowd was wild and it was right outside our hostel. I really got into it and before long heard myself chanting “Asa-KUSA Asa-KUSA!” along with the crowd.
After I had enough of the Sanja Festival, I found myself in a tiny sushi restaurant off a side street not far from the festivities. I ordered a mixed plate of all kinds of sushi, including one I couldn’t quite identify. When I asked the chef, he told me a word in Japanese that I didn't understand. I asked him again, and then again, and then a few more times until he put his hands to his head, using his fingers to make ears and neighed.
Wait. Hold on… is he saying I was eating…
HOLY SHIT - IT WAS RAW HORSE!!!!
Yes, that's right - RAW HORSE. Well, as they say, when in Rome... so I dove right in. It actually wasn’t all that bad - a bit chewy, kinda like rough carpaccio, but still tasty. The chef and all the people in the restaurant, who were clearly not used to foreign faces in their establishment, all looked on with smiles as this white girl tried a local delicacy and didn’t spit it back up. In fact, the chef gave me a second sampling of horse, on the house, and I gobbled that up too, much to the delight of him and my fellow diners.
And on that note, I bid Tokyo goodnight and returned to my hostel to get some sleep before my next journey tomorrow to Nikko in northern Japan.
