Visited Shibamata for the first time over the weekend.

I'd been meaning to go for a while because it seemed like an interesting place to visit in Tokyo, but I just hadn't had the chance until now.

It was a really nice place and I was surprised at how few people were there.
There was a ton of shops lined up along the main street and the wooden buildings gave it a really nice atmosphere.

I haven't seen Otoko wa Tsurai yo, but there were statues and posters of Tora-san everywhere, even inside shops and stuff. I guess I'll have to watch it some time when I have the chance.

We ended up eating lunch at one of the restaurants along the main road and they had some Tora Miso Ramen so we decided to try it. It was pretty good and had a decent amount of vegetables in it as well, so moderately healthy for ramen I suppose. We also got some dessert at a cafe afterwards and she got some dango while I ordered an ice cream float.

We also went to the nearby temple Shibamata Taishakuten (柴又帝釈天), or Daikyoji Temple and walked around the main temple grounds and also bought tickets to see the garden and the architecture inside the temple. The garden was really pretty and the walkway around it was quite nice to walk on.

I really enjoyed viewing the inside of the temple as there was a ton of hand-carved panels depicting different scenes. There were descriptions below each of the panels that described them as well, and they were interesting to read.

It seemed like they were all carved by different people but they were all highly skilled.

When we were leaving we found a nice little shows style candy shop and we bought some snacks and played a round of pinball on one of the pinball machines inside the shop. Haven’t played pinball since I was a kid, was pretty nostalgic.

If you're in Tokyo I definitely recommend giving this place a visit on the weekend.