Origami

All Japanese people fold origami everyday.

Social Smoking

This is part of the campaign in Japan to encourage "social" smoking. On street corners there are specific areas where you can smoke, with ashtrays and appropriate signage like this. Japanese smokers seem resigned to these restrictions, maybe because they are quite polite. It says:

"My lit cigarette always points toward others, never toward myself."

"After the corner was turned, the trash was tossed away. It was a blind spot in the city."

On second glance these appear to be instructions on how to incinerate others with a tobacco driven cone of fire, and an endorsement of littering, as long as it's out of sight.

Monkey see, monkey do

Yes, I just called my daughter a monkey. You all are too.

"Dance, monkeys, dance."

Shrine

This is my kind of shrine. It seems they'll do anything to get Buddha's attention.

Sunday in Ueno

Last Sunday we met up with Kiriko and Toshikatsu, two of my former students, and they took us for a tour around Ueno. First up was the Toshogu Shrine, which means the shrine of the Sun God of the East. It's small but rarely visited, at least when we were there it was practically deserted. It is surrounded by an open lattice type wall with a lot of intricate gilded woodwork depicting dragons, fish, birds and flowers.

You can see how small the doorways are, I suppose people were even shorter then.

That's my samurai face.

We also ate a small lunch at a restaurant hidden inside a huge building that normally we would have thought to be a museum. It certainly didn't look much like a restaurant but it had a spectacular view of the park.

Toshikatsu had planned some of his favourite places to go, and the next was the one I liked best. It was the Shitamachi Museum, which shows how the common people lived in the past. It was a quite recent past, about one to two hundred years ago, but it still seemed worlds away. The museum contains mock ups of rooms in shops and houses of the period.

These are living rooms.

The next one is meant to be the lobby of an 'onsen', a Japanese bath house.

The last place we went was the Kyu Iwasaki Tei Gardens. It's an old house that was built in Western style for the founder of the Mitsubishi company, Iwasaki Yataro. It's huge and rambling, with a massive English lawn and a Swiss mountain chalet on the side. Attached to the back of the house is a Japanese style extension where they serve tea. When we got there a concert was playing in one corner of the house. The whole place had a considerably sophisticated air to it.

We strolled around the empty rooms while Toshikatsu kindly looked after Alice as she slept. On the way back to the station we pushed through a crowded market with some interesting sights.

Some cherries. One hundred yen is about one dollar. We decided not to buy them ...

even though they were ...

Clothes store

I found this store in Odaiba, which is an artificial island in Tokyo Bay. I was going to buy some stuff for Alice there, but I didn't.

Look closely and you will see why.

Women Only

On the subway they have women only cars during peak hours. This is to safeguard women from "chikan", innapropriate touching. When the cars get full it's hard to move away from others, and also hard to identify the groper. Apparently men get groped too from time to time.

Food for differing tastes.

I'm no food Nazi, however ......

.....these sound less than appetising. Actually, they were the best of a bad bunch. The Aars and Krap brands were a bit pricey.

I love going to the am/pm convenience store, where all manner of continuously changing junk food is on offer. It seems being fresh and new is the prime motivation for Japanese people to buy a product, so everything is constantly getting repackaged, renamed and/or reformulated.

Top left is a smiling custard doughnut. Bottom left is a rockmelon flavoured Kit Kat. Big Thunder is chocolate biscuit base covered in chocolate. Bottom right is an evil lumberjack chopping down the homes of a tree climbing bunny.

The chocolate stumps were actually the most delicious of them all.

Robot Park

I've been looking around lately for a convenient and safe playground to take Alice. Most of the parks are a little dangerous because of the equipment and the hard surfaces, mainly dirt. When I say dangerous, I mean that the equipment would be really fun to play on if you were a kid a bit older than Alice. It's the sort of stuff that's gradually been removed from Australian playgrounds because of perceived or actual injury potential. If she was older, I would probably let her play on it, I don't mind much if she gets injured.




I did a bit of searching on the Internet and found Sakura Zaka Koen, or Robot Park. It's really close to my house but somewhat hidden. It's small, but is pretty amazing. It has rubber matting, ten different slides, a longer roller slide and some wobbly robot riders. And it's robot themed.

I kind of wish they'd turned these robots over, superman style.

The Algorithm March, with Ninjas!

From a Japanese kids show called Pythagoras Switch (Pitagora Suichi).

The Bidet

Our apartment has a bidet. It's like a little bird bath for your genitals. Alice likes to perch on it when I go to the bathroom.

Toilets

I've never had need to use the squat type toilets in Japan yet, because I'm a guy, but I have had to urinate in full view of every Japanese person in the vicinity.

Bad design, or ........... I can't think of any other reason for this. Two seconds after I took this picture in Shinjuku park, a Japanese man walked straight past me, surely noticing that I was taking pictures of the urinals, and had a pee.

I just couldn't bring myself to press the button.

Alice makes friends on the subway.

Jizo

Jizo is a popular form of bodhisattva in Japan. In Buddhism, bodhisattvas are beings who are trying to gain enlightenment. However, in some forms of Buddhism they take on an extra duty and promise to delay their journey into nirvana until all beings are ready to enter.

Jizo has made this vow and tries to lessen the suffering experienced by souls in Buddhist hell. He is the guardian of "unborn, aborted, miscarried, and stillborn babies", and also takes time out to assist firemen, travellers, children and pregnant women. He's a busy buddha.

These Jizo are from Zojoji, a temple, and are Mizuko Jizo. Mizuko literally means water baby, and refers to unborn children who float about in the womb. Jizo often are dressed in children's clothes, like bibs and caps, and may also be accompanied by toys, such as these pinwheels. Another tradition is to build small piles of stones on or near the statues. These piles are equivalent to stupa, which buddhists build to gain merit. A pagoda is a type of stupa, for example.

Tokyo Tower

Sunday's jaunt began with a huge bowl of noodles. Alice was chuffed that the noodles were also quite large and easy to eat. You could order one and a half or two times the noodles at no extra cost. The regular size was plenty.

We then went to see Tokyo Tower. It's kind of like the Eiffel Tower, except it's shorter and bright red. Also, you have to queue to buy a ticket to the regular observation deck, then queue to get in the lift, then queue to buy another ticket to go to the special observation deck, then queue to get on that lift. Oh, and you have to queue to go down in the lift but it only takes you to the fourth floor and then you have to walk down ten flights of stairs. I almost thought I was going to miss my stair quota because we didn't take the subway. I shouldn't have worried.

It does have a great view, and you get a little brochure telling you what you can see with an annotated panoramic photo. They even have some touch screen views which will give you a little info on each building you press. We spotted lots of weird things which we couldn't identify, such as this building.

It looks like a stadium or theatre or maybe an Imperial Destroyer.

I've been trying to surreptitiously shoot some clothes with interesting slogans on them. Luckily queues are the perfect place to catch people standing still with their backs turned.

Actually the best thing at Tokyo Tower, apart from the pink phallic mascot, was the glass floor which allows you to look straight down. It's pretty scary even though it's only about a metre long. We wondered if Alice would be scared or if fear of heights was a learned response.

She wasn't scared at all.

We stopped off at the fun park on the way down the stairs and Alice raced into a giant Pikachu thing and wouldn't come out.

We were just happy that we didn't have to chase her around for a while. I'm considering getting one shipped from Japan.

Strong plants

A real estate agency.

Access

You don't see many old people on the subway, or people in wheelchairs, or with prams. Every day I have to carry Alice, bag and stroller up at least ten flights of stairs.

See if you notice anything wrong with this picture.

The Queen

The Queen enters her Queendom.





The Queen interacts with her serfs.

Disneyland

On Saturday we went to Disneyland. I think it's actually called Tokyo Disney Resort or something but it is an exact copy of Disneyland in California, except containing about ten times the amount of people. It felt like there were ten people within one metre of us everywhere we went in the park. It was actually not the experience we were hoping for. Most rides had hour long queues. The only time we had even the slightest chance to get on a ride was when the thrice daily parade was happening. Ironically this was also the worst time to move around to get to the rides as the parade route meandered through all the lands and blocked them off.

One thing different from California Disney was the large amount of benches available. I suppose they didn't want everyone just squatting on the ground all over the park. They were still mostly full but we did get to sit down when we needed to.

Rain was another problem. We actually consciously chose to go on a somewhat rainy day to avoid the crowds, but most of Tokyo had the same idea, I think. Alice didn't get too wet until we waited outside a shop for mummy. Near a fountain.

Shibuya

Walking into Shibuya yesterday nearly got me killed. In Japan the pedestrian crossings are striped but so are the crossings at traffic lights. So sometimes your brain will misfire and you'll walk on a red man thinking you're on a zebra crossing. Of course the car about to hit me didn't stop until the very last moment, obviously hoping for me to leap out of the way spectacularly and leave the stroller to explode in the fiery collision. Japanese people are very polite and courteous to your face but somewhat less so when behind the wheel.

Shibuya is a main shopping district and is extremely crowded. I don't think I've ever seen so many people as in Shibuya on a Sunday night. Thankfully it is slightly less crowded on a weekday morning. I was planning to buy a mouthguard as I'd lost mine again and had seen a sports store around there somewhere. I was hoping my hunting and tracking skills hadn't regressed too much in the last 100,000 years.

Here's a sign for a store which creates an altogether wrong image in my mind.

I only wish that these existed. It would make doing the shopping a little easier.

Three, two, one, blast off.

Thoughtfulness

An example of thoughtfulness, a lost shoe placed at head height in a noticeable place.

Meiji-Jingu

The Meiji-Jingu shrine was built to remember the Emperor Meiji. He was the one who decided to open Japan up to the world, he affected Western dress and also ate Western food and drank wine. The shrine is located in the middle of Yoyogi Park in Harajuku. To get there you have to walk on a crushed gravel path, you can find them everywhere in Tokyo but they absolutely suck to push a stroller on. On the way you can see some barrels which contained the wine that the emperor drank with his meals.





It's a very attractive shrine, with a large expanse of white stone for a courtyard and attractive cedar construction. All the ends of the wood were painted white which also looked pretty cool.





To one side of the shrine was a shop selling votive tablets and a tree surrounded by a wall of written prayers. You buy a tablet, write your prayer on it and hang it up for all to see. There was writing in many different languages and I spent quite a while reading what other people hoped for in life. Lots of praying for health, good relationships and general well wishing was on display.





As usual Alice was entertaining the locals by eating cake messily, running around screaming and falling down the temple stairs. The last was after we had been inside to listen to the huge drum that they beat before the midday worship. Of course we could have heard it from the outside, or indeed from the park entrance it was so loud. The drum was higher than a person and the stick (club) they used to hit it with was being swung like a baseball bat. Each beat Alice's whole body would tense then she'd look at me and grin ear to ear. After the ceremony she thought it would be an auspicious time to try to walk down stairs like an adult would and promptly fell on her head.


She'll never trust Buddha again.

Buildings everywhere

Fortune Telling

Sensoji temple has some fortune telling booths which contain many small drawers and a metal canister. You shake the canister, which is filled with sticks, until one of the sticks falls out of a small hole. This stick has a few characters on it, and using these you find the corresponding drawer containing a piece of paper with your fortune on it. It's kind of self serve fortune telling.


Bek shook number 54, bad fortune.


"Your body is one but with two different kind mind, so everything goes out of order. Just like lunar eclipse make the sky all dark all will be at dark. Though fortune approaches to you, but you can't get it. Just like a fish can't meet water, there may be so many possibility to be a bad case for you.

The request will not be granted. The patient will be unhappy. The lost article will not be found. The person you wait for will not come. Let's stop build a new house and removal. Any kind of marriage, to start a trip, new employment are all bad." (sic)


Those Buddhists don't mess around. Now for my fortune.


Number 1, best fortune.


"The tower of cloisonne with seven treasures is standing in a stately manner upon the high summit. People look at it and praise it. Your fortune is just like this tower. When you look at it more carefully, your fortune will be more excellent.

Your wishes will be realised. A sick person will recover. The person you are waiting for will come soon. The lost article will be found but it will take a little while. Building a new house, moving marriage, taking a trip, employment are all good. Be careful for everything that you want to do. If you are careless, you will get hurt." (sic)


Nothing more need be said.

Sensoji

Sensoji is a large temple which houses a famous statue of the Buddha of Mercy, Kannon. However, no one is allowed to see it except the monks, so it may not even exist. It was hauled out of a river by two fisherman, and has been housed at the temple ever since.

To get to the temple we entered the Kaminarimon, which has two protector devils on each side. Leading on is a street filled with shops, some tacky and some tasteful. The amount of people visiting parks and temples on any weekend in Tokyo is enormous. You can hardly move, and it's even worse with a stroller. You just get used to ricocheting off one person and into another.

The temple itself is massive, but looks pretty similar to any other Buddhist temple. Out the front is a large pot of sand and ash where people can burn incense. You'll see people trying to wash themselves with the smoke, which is thought to bring good health. Outside temples there is always a fountain with some ladles to wash yourself, but Sensoji has a rather impressive man holding a dragon statue complete with dragon head fonts.

We let Alice run wild and meet other Jkids. As usual, me and Bek were like ghosts, being neither seen nor heard. A chocolate banana was had, and we tried to make the child sleep to no avail. She hates sleeping. Sleeping means not moving.

Sensoji also has a five storey pagoda, it looks nice but I don't know much about it.

We also saw two temple cats.