MangoVine - Asakusa’s Nakamise-dori Traditional Shopping Street

15 May, 2009
Friday

We timed our visit to Asakusa to coincide with the three day Sanja Matsuri or the Sanja Festival. Consulting the Wikipedia entry on Sanja Matsuri, we found out that the first day began with a large parade at 1pm.

Arriving at 12.30pm, the streets of Asakusa were bustling as we made our way towards the closest end of the famed Nakamise-dori shopping arcade street.

Sanja Matsuri activities hadn't appeared to have started yet, but the Nakamise-dori easily kept our interest since it was a long street, full of life and packed with shops selling a variety of toys, accessories, souvenirs and snacks.

The arcade leads directly to the visible Senso Temple (Senso-ji) which was surrounded by grounds filled with temporarily-erected food vendor stalls.

Below are the kinds of things we saw on sale to keep and to eat!

This guy below seemed to be making up these puffed up biscuits by constantly swirling a bubbly, sugary mixture around within the tiny pan.

We'd seen several stalls cooking up some rice crackers, but this guy actually cracked us up when we saw that he was just in his underwear!

Watch a video of this guy in action!

Some prepacked rice crackers:

Candied fruit on a stick, kept cool on a block of ice:

Linh tucks into noodles for lunch:

And then has a sugar-coated banana for dessert:

Toys, masks and phone charms:

Salt fish:

Good old fashion burgers:

Steamed buns:

Potato spirals:

Peanut snacks:

Assorted bbq sticks:

Various sea food snacks:

I wasn't sure what these shreds were:

Little red bean cookies, hot off the pan:

More photos on Flickr: Nakamise-dori photos Day 1, and Nakamise-dori photos Day 2

Information on the Sanja Matsuri on Wikipedia

This entry posted in : Attractions. Culture. Events. Food. Japan. Shopping. Tourism.

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Asakusa’s Nakamise-dori Traditional Shopping Street - Food and Toys!

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