Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine October 2014 | Page 115

Travel | Tokyo

113

Jinrikisha
Asakusa can easily be explored on foot. Alternatively,
you can take a guided tour on a rickshaw (jinrikisha,
literally ‘human-powered vehicle’). A 30-minute tour
for two people costs around ¥8,000. Shorter and longer
tours are also available.
Asakusa dapat dijelajahi dengan berjalan kaki. Anda
juga dapat menyewa becak (jinrikisha yang secara
harafiah berarti “kendaraan bertenaga manusia”). Tur 30
menit untuk 2 orang ini menghabiskan biaya sekitar
8.000 yen. Tersedia pilihan tur singkat dan tur lama.

Tokyo was known as Edo, and its ‘high city’ was up on the
hill, in and around Edo Castle, where the rich and powerful
built their swanky homes. But it was ‘downtown’ Asakusa
where everybody else headed (to eat, sleep, pray), as had
been the case long before the castle was erected.

Tokyo was known as Edo, and its ‘high city’
was up on the hill, in and around Edo
Castle, where the rich and powerful built
their swanky homes. But it was ‘downtown’
Asakusa where everybody else headed
(to eat, sleep, pray), as had been the case
long before the castle was erected.
Kaminarimon, for example, was first built
in 942, so has seen a millennium of travellers
pass between its glowering gods. And they
come for the same reason today as they
always have done: to see Sensō-ji Temple.

First established in the year 645, the temple
protects a small Buddhist figurine reputedly
dragged up in fishing nets from the muddy
floor of the nearby river 17 years before. It’s
an event that is celebrated here every March
18 and October 18 with the Kinryu-no-Mai
Golden Dragon Dance.

this by recruiting their shafu from the ranks
of ‘resting’ actors, wannabe models and
pumped-up fitness trainers. Pullers’ pics
and potted biographies are touted on the
company websites (www.jidaiya.biz or
www.ebisuya.com, for example) to tantalise
prospective customers before their trips.

Admittedly, in any given month Tokyo’s
oldest temple seems to be at the thumping
heart of one celebration or another. Visitor
numbers go through the roof during the
three days of New Year, and the temple
precincts and surrounding lanes are
inundated with festival-goers for Sanja
Matsuri (May 16–18, 2015), one of the city’s
most boisterous Shintō shindigs.

A half-hour rickshaw ride costs ¥8,000
to ¥9,000 (it’s fairly standard – the prices
are often displayed on boards) and takes
passengers on a whistle-stop tour of the
district…and perhaps also a little back in
time, to the days when the city was logjammed with 40,000 rickshaws.

Back on the pavement by the ‘Thunder Gate’,
dozens of rickshaw pullers – known as shafu
– drum up business. They’re an amenable
crowd who will happily pose for a quick
snap, knowing that their ‘traditional’ dress
(including hanten jackets and split-toed jika
tabi shoes) is of secondary interest to their
bright smiles and heroic poses. Though
there is a handful of women pullers, this
is still a man’s game – and many of them
have earned pin-up status in recent years.
Rickshaw companies have capitalised on

Then, in the 1870s, the rickshaw (from the
Japanese jinrikisha for ‘human-powered

The busy junction of Nakamise-dōri and Denboin-dōri.
Walking along Hoppy-dōri.
A rickshaw ride along Denboin-dōri.
Girls read their ‘o-mikuji’ fortunes at Sensō-ji Temple.