My 3rd day in Tokyo started off early like my previous day. This time I decided to visit a lot of the small residential streets to start of my morning. To power me on my way I decided to visit a "Konbini" (term for convenience stores in Japan) next to my hotel. The Konbini of Japan are much different than those in the U.S. and are a part of daily life for most people in Japan. There are almost everywhere and I was thankful for that.

After grabbing some fruit and canned coffee I was off on my exploration journey. Please note the Lawson 100 yen store featured above was not my regular konbini just one I saw on the way. I mostly shopped at a local family mart a couple doors down from my hotel but Lawson's is fantastic too.

It was Sunday and the town was very quite. This made me really feel like a local as I walked the neighborhood near my hotel and slowly expanded outward eventually reaching Kappabashi Dougu or Kappabashi Street. Kappabasi street is also known as "Kitchen town" as it is the premier destination for all things kitchen in Japan. Only about 30% of the shops are open on Sunday so it was a bad day for me to visit but I enjoyed looking around at the store windows and had no plans to buy any kitchen items anyway.

In Kappabashi I found a fun statue and the legend of Kappa. It is said the mythical Kappa (river boy) is a "Yokai" a kind of spirit of sorts. Kappa were kind of tricksters and River Spirits and apparently the local shop keepers adopted it as the mascot for the area. A golden statue of a Kappa really stood out.

The streets around Kappabashi towards Ueno were very interesting. I loved the atmosphere. I found countless things of interest ranging from statues to cool architecture and unique shops. I really felt this would be an area I would enjoy living in if I lived in Tokyo.

I stopped in a small restaurant for breakfast before checking the time and deciding to get back to Sensoji for today's main event which was "Shirasagi-no-mai" (White Heron Dance) and the Tokyo Jidai Matsuri (Tokyo Jidai Festival and Parade). Actually I timed my entire trip to Japan so that I could check this event out.

Stay tuned for Sensoji and Shirasagi-no-mai next week. To see more of Asakusa and Kappabashi street please check my set http://kfrates.zenfolio.com/p678304499