Robot Claw

Before I start today – no comments??! Is anyone reading this?

Yesterday started with an as-soon-as-it-opened visit to the Tokyo Institute Of Nature study in Ebisu. A fancy name for an untended park (think Blackbutt), which is one of the very few of it’s type in Tokyo. Nice enough, I suppose, but no doubt much more appreciated by a Tokyoite that rarely gets to spend much time in nature.

Afterwards we headed over to Harajuku and the Meiji Shrine. We have been here before, but the shrine is so close to Harajuku (itself so close to Shibuya) that it seems silly to get off the train there and not visit. As it turns out it was a good thing we did, since we got to see two separate traditional shinto weddings in progress:

The meiji shrine is a monument dedicated to the eternal souls of a departed Japanese emperor and his wife. It’s beautiful, serene and very popular with tourists (both Japanese and foreign). One of it’s big attractions is writing a wish/prayer on a wooden postcard and placing them around a sacred tree. Eventually they are collected and burned in the hope the prayers will come true. Here are some examples of the thousands hanging there yesterday:

Of course we had to make our own, or at least I did. I caved again to disbelief in superstition, and instead embraced absurdity.

Harajuku and neighbouring Shibuya are the two most popular destinations for trendy Japanese teens to go shopping in. And when I say popular I mean really popular, as ininsanely popular 🙂

< Harajuku, Shibuya

We were getting tired by now (it was mid afternoon) and headed back to the ryokan for a couple of hours rest. As we were riding the train back the heavens opened and a truly monsoonal rain fell. By the time we’d got back to the ryokan, we were drenched (even with umbrellas!)

< !!!

After a rest, we headed back out (the rain had stopped) on a lazy walk toward downtown Ueno (about 30 minutes). In Ueno park we were quite surprised to find a flowering bonsai tree competition, or at least the end of one (it was being packed away). There were about a hundred of the bonsai originally in display, and happily quite a few grand ones had still not been picked up by their owners .

Are they azaelas? Maybe AS or JAF could identify. By the way the hydrangeas are blooming all over the city right now, and KLS always stops to have a gander!

The more I visit Ueno, the more I like it. The ameyokocho shopping street is a crazy mix of pachinko parlour, restaurant, adult establishment and game center and really comes alive at night.

The third shot above is of a Pachinko parlour. Can you see the gigantic Evangelion poster on the side? Evidence of the marketing towards younger players the parlours have (successfully, apparently) undertaken in recent years. Every licensed property you can imagine – from Harry Potter to Thunderbirds – has been used in Pachinko!

Here’s some shots of some very, very, very expensive fruit (think 100 yen = 1 US dollar approximately).

Would YOU pay over $100 for a rockmelon/cantaloupe? I think not! (These are in the special fruit gift shop in the basement of a department store and are popular gifts to give when you really need to impress someone)

And the obligatory arcade shots of the day, including the ‘dating game’ House Of The Dead EX (left), the Arc-Systems fighting game BlazBlue (center) and the (awesome) fighter Tatsunoko vs Capcom (right).

To quote Doctor Who quoting someone else (yes I know), in Tokyo, there are “more games to see than can ever be seen and more games to play than can ever be played”!

I did see a cute bunny cake though!

And KLS purchased a tiger washcloth, and also some coffee that came packed with a cute girl ‘bottle topper’:

Yesterday’s food choices for breakfast (Wendy’s) and lunch (Subway) were bland, and chosen simply because they happened to be nearby when we got hungry. Dinner though, well that was another story…

< Delicious!

I’m writing these in the mornings, as you may have guessed. Which means I already know the plans of the day after the day you’ve just read about. So what will you read about tomorrow…?

Have you worked out the method of my blog titles yet? If not, here’s a hint:

< Yes, it’s true

The rain had lessened, so yesterday we switched back to our plan for Friday, which was Asakusa followed by Odaiba. We left the inn early and walked through the Yanaka area to Ueno station, stopping at Denny’s (of all places!) on the way for breakfast.

< Oishi!

The spaghetti was outrageously good, meaty and flavoursome with a nice density to the noodles. We will probably eat breakfast here again! The Yanaka area is an interesting (possibly) upper class part of Tokyo, with modernish homes packed into an area where there always seems to be a shrine or temple or graveyard within  a couple of blocks. One day soon we’ll go for more of an exploratory walk, so I’ll post a couple of picks then.

By the way, we saved 243 photos from yesterday alone. It’s quite a task choosing 20 or so for the daily blog post, and I apologize if I am favouring the eccentric over the scenic 🙂

Asakusa is famous for Senso-Ji temple and a large gate called the Thunder Gate. We’ve been here before, although not for five years. It’s perhaps the most popular part of the city for foreign tourists as well.

Running from the gate to the temple is a (famous) shopping street called Nakamise-Dori. Actually most of the entire surrounding area is packed with souvenir shops of all shapes and sizes, selling such things as traditional Japanese crafts, foods and clothing. The rightmost image above is of me standing in front of one (of many) stores specializing in a particular type of rice cracker. Many stores also make a type of pastry stuffed with flavoured cream, often in special shapes:

And yes, those are Obama cakes at the end 🙂

The main Senso-Ji temple is not very scenic right now, being covered as it is with scaffolding for what looks like some roof maintenance. Tourists are still allowed inside though, and we purchased out customary fortunes to see what life held for us:

Mine is on the left, and KLS’s is on the right! If you get a bad one (and could hers be worse?) you are supposed to twist it up and tie it onto a tree near the temple, to eventually be burned in the hope it becomes good. She kept hers though, since she’s “not superstitious” 🙂

And this is a photo of a fake bowl of rice, used a model to give potential customers an idea what the food you serve is like (99% of restaurants here use such things):

< Looks good, eh?

The city has also seemed to have undertaken an incentive to stop people from smoking while walking. Yes, you read that correctly! Signage such as these are common everywhere now:

Asakusa is the northernmost stop on the ferry that travels the Sumida river through Tokyo. We hopped on this boat and rode it all the way to Odaiba, the reclaimed land entertainment complex (think a much bigger Darling Harbour).

The main reason to come here was to ride the Great Wheel ferris wheel, which I did. But we had to eat first, and what could be better than a burger at a translocated Hawaiin chain?

The third image above? Yep, a performing monkey. A Japanese Macaque (sp?) to be precise. It’s not a trip to Japan without seeing a performing ape.

This was occuring just outside of Muscle Park, which is a ‘theme park’ devoted to the Fuji TV shows such as Monster Box and Sasuke (aka Ninja Warrior in the USA). For about $14 one could attempt a (smaller) recreation of the Ninja Warrior course in an effort to impress one’s girlfriend. We watched a guy try, and fail miserably. Not surprising since the second obstacle was the Wall Hang and the third was a Salmon Climb!

The complex named Pallette Town on Odaiba also has the biggest arcade I have ever seen. Again, I’m saving a lot of arcade photos for a dedicated post, but suffice to say this place is basically a warehouse stuffed with games. Hundreds of them, in all shapes and sizes. It’s awesome in the literal sense of the word.

The rightmost photo above is making Adam’s eyes boggle. It shows over a hundred gashapon machines in a row, and was less than half of the total in this arcade. For anywhere from Y100 to Y500 you get a little ball out with a toy inside, and the offerings range from little garbage things for kids to highly detailed models for collectors. If anything, they seem even more common in Japan now than ever, and we’re constantly stopping to see what wonders are on offer!

Here’s a video of me playing an interesting Whack-A-Mole game!

Oh, and here’s a naked guinea pig:

Handsome little devil isn’t he? And a bargain at only $355!

Dinner was chicken yakitori on cold rice, with cake for desert. The bakery near here (Kobe Kotobukiya again) has such wonderful offerings, presented with such perfection it brings a tear to my eye. As always, I sucked down a slice of strawberry shortcake. Maybe one day I’ll buy an entire cake!