This was back in January when we had visitors and we decided to go to Harajuku, an area of Tokyo that is popular with young people. In Harajuku, the trendiest “fashionistas” walk side by side with Lolitas and Cosplayers (people dressed up as their favourite fiction characters). I found the best way to visit Harajuku is to sit in a café/restaurant and observe… and the photo below is the kind of things you can observe, if you are lucky!
We went to a restaurant near the famous Tsukiji market in Tokyo with a group of colleagues. The place is famous for its sushi but they also have all sorts of cooked fish and when we saw “Fugu” on the menu, we decided to be brave and try some of that deadly fish. I wasn’t expecting Fugu cooked in a “fish & chips” style but why not? Now, let me be honest, it wasn’t amazing, it tasted like any battered fish… Well, next time I will try it in sushi style!
Recent photos on Flickr
This past week marked the start of cherry blossom season in Tokyo! All of a sudden, nature around us changed and we are now surrounded by “sakura trees” (i.e. cherry trees). Outside blossom season, sakura trees are pretty normal, so you wouldn’t really notice them among other trees. But these days, they are the stars of Japan and they get all the attention they deserve!
Together with cherry blossom season comes a lot of sakura special edition goods. Japan loves its seasons and is all about seasonal goods! So, shops and supermarkets recently started selling all sorts of pink cherry blossom flavoured goods, such as cherry kitkat, pink sweets, sakura flavoured Fanta, Starbucks offers sakura cafe latte, etc. Having tried the sakura kitkat a few years ago, I thought I’d try something else this time; and this time, I got a limited edition sakura sparkling sake. It’s pink and … interesting!
Last week, it was White Day in Japan. White Day is on the 14th of March, a month after Valentine’s Day. In Japan, on Valentine’s Day, women make/buy chocolates to the men of their life. By “men”, I mean all the males in their life, including boyfriend/fiancé/husband, but also including father, brothers, male colleagues, etc. It’s to thank them for being part of their life. So it’s quite a different tradition as the one in Europe. Those men who were lucky to receive chocolate on Valentine’s Day are now expected to return the favour on White Day, by giving white chocolate or cookies to those women. Quite interesting custom there… and also the month where chocolate shops make 20% of their annual turnover!
When you live outside Japan, you hear a lot of crazy stories/anecdotes about how things are in Japan, about how people live and how they behave. Before I came to Japan, I had heard a lot of these stories and I was quite disappointed that most of them were wrong actually! I imagined Japan being such a futuristic place where they used robots to do all sorts of stuff. Now, not like in a science fiction movie, but in the same way “roomba” does the vacuum, I was expecting to find handy robots to do other chores or tasks. But, no, instead, I found out that during cold winter, you use kerosene heater to heat the main room of your apartment and you leave the window opened so that you don’t suffocate from the kerosene smoke…
So last September, as I walked around Shibuya, one day, I came across that interesting building shaped as a Power Ranger robot; I was quite surprised, actually. That was what I expected Japan to be like!
In Shibuya (one of the busiest area of Tokyo), there is a statue of a dog called Hachikō.
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Story: Hachikō met its owner, Professor Ueno, every day near Shibuya station and they walked home together. After its owner died, Hachikō kept coming to Shibuya station and waited for him. It is said that Hachikō came to Shibuya station, every day for nine years after Professor Ueno died. Hachikō attracted the other commuters’ attention. Indeed, many people passing through Shibuya had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together. Articles about Hachikō were published and the dog became well known and even a statue of Hachikō was erected just outside Shibuya station. |
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The statue of Hachikō is very famous; everyone gets their photo taken beside Hachikō. It is also a very famous meeting point in Shibuya; I often meet my friends at the Hachikō statue myself, but it’s only recently that I noticed a mural of Hachikō, made of mosaics on the other side of Shibuya station. And it’s my photo of the week!
Coming back from lunch in the neighbouring town, we walk through the Ritsugenji park again and I noticed the winter light in the graveyard. Everything looked so peaceful under that cold sun… But winter is on its way out and fruit trees are starting to bloom again. Hello cherry blossom season!
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Okusawa is one of the small neighborhood near where we live. It’s got that nice feel that things haven’t really changed since the 50’s with those old templtes, old restaurants, old stores and kimono shops…
Okusawa is a town near us that I discovered in January while touring the area. It’s pretty small but there is a great feel about the place and it’s full of “old stuff” like old shops and restaurants; there is also a gorgeous wooden temple with a peaceful garden…
Other photos on Flickr.
We went to a very interesting ceremony at our local temple, last weekend… A ritual of purification by water! Those dudes walked out of the temple towards a trough filled with water; they took off their bathrobe and crouched down, started to chant while scooping water out of the trough and splashed the water over their body. After repeating that ritual a few times, they were given a bathrobe and went back to the temple to get changed. We were then ushered into the temple to attend the rest of the ceremony. We weren’t sure if we’d go in, knowing we wouldn’t understand much but that nice monk invited us in and gave us a seat and then … for over an hour we were listening to those same dudes chanting in Japanese (?) It was … an interesting experience…
