Japan Trip: Day 3; Capsules and Festivals

Hello again! I`m cathing up in my posts again and today I`m covering day 3.

So at the start of the day I checked out of my hostel and moved to a capsule hotel about 15mins away but still in Asakusa. Things didn`t start out to good since I had to check out by 11 but I couldn`t check in to the hotel until 3pm. So when I arrived, all I could do was leave my bag and head out. I had plans on going around the city but by that time it was around 12:30pm so I didn`t really have enough time to explore things. Instead, I took a quick train to Akihabara and played around a bit in the arcades and buy gifts for some friends. I ended up winning a new prize at the UFOs which was a usb mouse of a character who I have no idea of from a series I`ve never seen before. I just tried for it because it only took 200￥ to get the prize. If someone knows, please let me know. I also picked up a cute little chibi version of Kirino-chan for my backpack!

After I returned to the hotel, I checked into my room took pictures and headed out to the asakusa shrine. Now I wasn`t expecting to find much, just a few shops and a pretty shrine. But I was lucky in that on this saturday night they were having a big summer festival!! I quickly got excited to try a few things I had heard about, food wise. So I roamed the shops until I picked up some freshly made Takoyaki. It was delicous except for the fact that I had no idea how to eat it. It was nearly too big to eat in one bite so I tried shoving one down in one bite but ended up burning the skin off my tounge and spitting it out. It was only then that I saw someone else eating it that I understood. After that, it was all a delicous meal. From there I roamed a bit more until I found a nice little pastry stand. I`m not exactly sure what the terminology was on this food, but it was delicious and filled with (I think) red bean paste. Needless to say, I went back for seconds. After I had my belly filled, I decided to try my luck with the shrine. I washed my hands at the fountain, gave a small donation, and made a prayer. Then I tried my hand at drawing fortunes. Surprisingly it was difficult to get a numbered stick to come out of the box and I was sitting at the stand shaking the box for a good couple of mintues before I recieved a stick. As luck would have it, I drew good fortune with tales that I will recieve the wishes I hope for. I do actually slightly believe in these things so I`m happy with my drawing. After the night was done I went back to my hotel and had my first experience with a onsen, public bath. Thankfully I looked up instructions on proper procedure before entering and had little trouble blending in with the locals. It was slightly strange at first but to quote an online writer, "it`s nothing I haven`t seen before". After that, I had a nice cold beer and stared at the city for a while over the river at the top of the building. Overa;; very lucky night!