Sumida River Boat Trip

Today is the last Saturday when my two Thai housemates are still staying in my guesthouse. One goes home on Thursday, and the other next Saturday. We wanted to do something together as a farewell celebration (not celebrating the fact that they are leaving!).

So we went to Odaiba (お台場) to catch a boat up the Sumida River (隅田川) to Asakusa (浅草). I suggested that we took the Himiko (ヒミコ) boat. This type of boat runs 3-4 times a day, is more expensive than others, and looks very cool. It was manga-inspired, and looks great. Because my guesthouse is right next to the river halfway up towards Asakusa, I'd seen them pass by, and knew I wanted to try it. I'd even seen it on a TV programme in Britain last year.

As we waited (we didn't need to reserve and, even though it was a beautiful Saturday, the boat wasn't crowded at all), we watched some street perfomers do a European-style mime to music. It was very amusing.



The boat pulled in after a short wait. The ticket from this station (Toyosu, 豊洲) cost Y1,060, but Asakusa to Odaiba on the Himiko costs Y1,520. The Himiko is the most expensive type of boat, the cheapest is around Y300, for a short trip. You can see the types of boat here, and the different routes here.

The boat was designed with children in mind, and this was clear from the colourful characters, and lively announcements.

The whole trip took 40-50 minutes and was very pleasant. The views ranged from old Edo-period Tokyo, to a futuristic cityscape.

This is the area close to my guesthouse. It was interesting to see it from the water.

This is the hotel where my family stayed when they visited me in March and April.

I saw this building when I visited Asakusa in February.

Then we met up with another housemate in Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. We were all really hungry, and we ate in the same line of stalls that I had lunch with my family at one day.

This is okonomiyaki (お好み焼き), a pancake filled with meat and vegetables. It was so filling I couldn't finish mine, even though I'd only eaten an ice cream in the morning.

Yes, that's right. I'm as tall as the pagoda.

I have no idea why one of my housemates took this photo!

Washing my hands in the sacred water. It actually felt really smooth and nice.

On our way out of the Temple, my mum rang me and I was able to describe exactly where we were because she bought a pot for my grandparents from the shop I was standing next to!

Then our plan went slightly awry. One housemate needed to go back home to study for his TOEFL exam, and the two Thai girls decided to wander round Asakusa for a while. But we had arranged to meet someone in Shibuya, so my French housemate and I trekked across Tokyo to meet her.

It was lots of fun, window shopping, and trying on stupid sunglasses. We had a curry buffet for dinner, for only Y1,050! Very cheap and tasty. But we were all stuffed by the end of the evening.

Then we took the new Fukutoshin subway line, which opened today! You can read all about that on my next post.

On a different topic, this morning I slept through a magnitude 7.2 earthquake which killed 6 people in the northern prefecture of Iwate. I woke up a few minutes later, not sure why I'd been disturbed, but someone told me about it the next day. Apparently it had been very strong in Tokyo too. At this time, hundreds of people are injured, and rescuers are searching for people buried in a landslide. There have been over 200 aftershocks too. You can read about it on BBC News.