Adorable Things at Sanja Matsuri

Sanja Matsuri is a family festival, so there were adorable moppets everywhere you looked. They looked so cute dressed just like their parents.

Japanese kids can sleep anywhere. It's pretty impressive.

She was dancing by herself.

These kids were good sports. It was loud and crowded. But they were right in the thick of it.

Carrying the mikoshi.

Even the dogs get into the spirit! I love Corgis. Purebreds are the thing here. You never see a mutt. The most popular dogs seems to be a dachshund, then probably shiba inu. Then all the tiny purse dogs. They're all really well-behaved too.

This little guy even got some ice cream. Dogs in Tokyo are pretty pampered. I've seen a lot of dog strollers and almost everyone dresses them up. This past weekend I saw a poor St. Bernard wearing a t-shirt in 85 degree weather. He was so hot! Let's finish up with a picture of my Nelly:

Awww. In her Santa hat. I had to take that shot quick because she hates that hat. She's having a grand time in Kentucky with Mom and Dad. They let her chase squirrels every day.

This weekend while walking around the Omotesando shopping district (looking for my hat, which alas, was no longer there) we happened upon a Japanese all-male quintet performing a medley of Queen tunes in front of the Ralph Lauren store. Only in Tokyo.

Sanja Matsuri

I'm going a little out of order, because we did do much over Golden Week. But last weekend we went to Sanja Matsuri, one of the top 3 festivals in Tokyo. Matsuri is the word for festival. It was in Asakusa at the Sensoji Temple. That's me with my spiral cut potato. See, festival food is not just fish on a stick!

Each of the neighborhoods in Asakusa has a portable shrine (called mikoshi) that they parade around the streets and take to the big shrine to be blessed by the Shinto priests. There are smaller shrines for the kids to carry and big ones for the adults. They're all shiny.

Gen likes the kids' bandannas.

Here's one of the grown-up shrines. It looks really heavy. It's carried by at least 20-30 people and more people surround them, chanting and clapping. I assume the chanters are relief troops. Seriously, it looks really heavy.

There were a lot of people there. Each group has a designated time to march so they just milled about before. It goes on pretty much all day. We were there for around 4 hours and it was still going strong when we left.

When we were looking for a restroom we happened upon the holding area for all the mikoshi before they were paraded to the big shrine. We stupidly tried to walk alongside them to get to said restrooms, but that was a bad plan. At least 70 people accompany each shrine so we got a little stuck. And let me tell you, Japanese people have no compunction about shoving you out of their way. I felt like a pinball.

Each neighborhood has a different happi (short robe) with their specific character on the back. The women normally wear leggings underneath, but the men vary. Some wear pants, but a lot wear lovely booty shorts. And some go the really traditional route and just wear thongs (like the sumo wrestlers). I got quite an eyeful!

Overall this was one of the best festivals. I think I say that about every one we go to, but it really was a lot of fun. Asakusa is one of our favorite places. It's considered the old style Tokyo, I guess because there aren't a lot of high rises or nightclubs. I've tried to post a short video below, but I don't know if it will work. It's less than a minute and it shows one of the mikoshi parading past where we were standing. (Edited to add: The video worked for me. I hope you guys can see it!)

Osaka

Our second day of visiting Gen's family we toured around Osaka. His aunt has more energy than both of us put together. She exhausted me. She used to run marathons, then decided that wasn't challenging enough, so she started running 60Ks. Then she did a 200K. That last one was a relay, I think, but still! Awesome. And did I mention that she started running in her 50's? Yeah.

This was in a giant Ferris wheel. All of the pamphlets say it's the biggest one in Japan, but I think they built a bigger one somewhere in Tokyo. There are 2 cars that are totally glass, even the bottom, but it was an hour wait to ride on one of those.

Okay, you can kind of see the Ferris wheel behind me to the left. The yellow building is part of the aquarium complex. This picture was taken from the Santa Maria, a replica of Columbus's ship. Strangely, Columbus must have hired the entire cast of Pirates of the Caribbean. I love how all pirates wear eyeliner since Johnny Depp.

This is from the aquarium. I love this shot because of the scuba diver. He was cleaning the glass. Can you appreciate how many people were there? So, so, so many people.

The big attraction at this aquarium is the whale shark. He was pretty cool. They also had penguins, dolphins, and sea otters. I love going to aquariums with my mom. She gets totally fascinated.

Here we are at the Osaka Castle with Riku and Nanami. The castle is amazing from the outside and you get to go all the way up to the top for an incredible view, but the inside was a little disappointing. It's been totally gutted and refurbished with an elevator, a mini-museum, and about 3 gift shops. It's very shiny and new, nothing like the castle we saw in Kyoto. One great thing about Osaka is that there are signs and explanations in English. I appreciate that!

This is a view from the tippy-top of the castle.

Gen's favorite picture. It's hard to see, but check out Nanami's face. She had just fallen and scraped her knee and was right about to let out a horrific wail. Never fear, I healed her with a Band-Aid right after this picture.

In Japan when you go visit people, it is customary to take a small gift, called omiyage. You're also supposed to bring something back from your trip to your work colleagues. Gen bought Riku and Nanami this game and they wanted to play it all weekend long. I played twice, but Gen played at least 6 times. They were totally into it.

Golden Week

Golden Week is a national holiday that takes place at the beginning of May. It's like a big spring break. We went to visit Gen's relatives near Osaka. This was taken at a park near their house. There are thousands of those fish kites, all donated by local community groups and businesses.

From the left, that's Gen's great-aunt, Mariko, Nanami, me, Riku, and Rie. I've never been good at degrees of cousins, but I think Rie is Gen's second cousin and her kids are his second cousins once removed.

This was dinner our first night. You may have seen something like this on TV. It's called kaiten sushi. The sushi moves past you on little conveyor belts and you just pick whatever you want. You can also make requests for the sushi chefs. It's kind of like the fast-food equivalent of sushi. This place had really high quality, though. One of the funniest rolls was filled with corn and mayonnaise. I kind of wanted to try it, just to say I did, but Gen said I would embarrass him. Ha ha!

After you finish, the waitress counts up your plates. There are different colored plates for different prices. Look at how much we ate! That was for 8 people.

This is by far the craziest thing I have eaten so far. It's aji (mackerel) sashimi. They kill the fish right when you order, so when it's brought to the table it's still wriggling. It FREAKED ME OUT! The sashimi was good, but it was like the fish was looking at me, asking me not to eat him. I apologized to his sad eyes. After you finish the sashimi, they take the head and tail back to the kitchen and fry it up for you. You eat everything, even the bones. It was good, kind of like a fish cracker.

In news apropos of nothing, trucker hats are still tragically in fashion here. Also, I would like to take a poll. I tried on a very adorable (and cheap) madras fedora. Do I need to go back to the store and get it? My first instinct was not to buy it because I suspect I'm too old. But my Aunt Jane said go for it. Thoughts? Opinions?

Showa Day

April 29 was Showa Day, the celebration of the emperor's birthday (also my dad's birthday!). We went to the Meiji Shrine for some traditional court dancing. There were a ton of people there, as you can see.

We were a little late, so we only saw 2 dances. There were a lot of foreigners there and it was pretty nice because they had a brochure printed in English and the announcer spoke first in Japanese then translated to English. It was nice knowing what was going on. Normally we just stand around and look at the pretty colors.

The musicians.

The drummer.

One of the dancers. We happened to be in the right spot so they had to parade right past us. The masks are a little scary.

The moves are all very slow and controlled.

A wedding procession. This must be a lucky day to get married. We saw several weddings. They marched right past the dance stage. I think it would be pretty cool to be married at Meiji. I wonder if there's a lottery system or something.

The bride and groom.

After the dancing was finished we went for a picnic at Yogogi Park. It's a very popular place for picnics and just fooling around. A lot of the other Tokyo parks don't allow you to be on the grass, but it's ok to lounge around here. Badminton is a popular past time. We got some food from a festival across the street. It was a totally random fair encompassing politicians, environmentalists, human rights crusaders, and the Chamber of Commerce. We had an equally random assortment of food, including Turkish kabab sandwiches, nachos, and Chinese manju (steamed buns filled with BBQ pork).

More From Kamakura

This is the garden I mentioned in the last post. It is the Hasadera Temple, a temple for Kannon, the Buddhist God of Mercy.

I can't tell you what a pretty day it was. Just perfect.

These stone lanterns are featured in almost all Japanese gardens.

This is ingenious. They use parasols to shield the peonies from the sun. Clever and pretty!

Wisteria, one of my favorites. It always reminds me of the time Gen and I tried to help our neighbor, Maria, set up a wisteria trellis. We were trying to use copper piping and the pipes just didn't want to fit together. Every time we got one to connect, another would pop loose. And those wisteria vines are heavy! Hi Maria!

This is the view from the top of the temple. Yep, that's the ocean. We walked down to the beach after we ate lunch. It was too cold for swimming, but there were several people windsurfing. There are a few beach resorts on the other side of the bay. It looks a little like Myrtle Beach.

A bamboo forest and some cool lanterns at the temple.

I'm not sure which god this is, but there were hundreds of little statutes. I think maybe it has something to do with protecting children, because there was a little temple where people left offerings and most of the offerings were kiddie stuff, like toys and candy.

Me with the happy Buddha. The word for "cute" in Japanese is kawaii. Everyone thought this little guy was kawaii. This was easily one of our favorite places we've been to in Japan. We wandered around for probably 2 hours. There was also a temple that was carved out into the hollow of a hill. You had to walk in almost bent double. There was a little underground spring and different gods carved in the niches of the cavern.

Kamakura

Two weeks ago we went to Kamakura, a small town on the coast to the south of Tokyo. We intended to go to a festival, but someone (named Gen) misread the website so we went to the wrong temple. No matter, it was super cool. This is the Great Buddha of Kamakura. He is giant (about 37 feet tall).

He was built (?sculpted?) in 1252 and was originally housed inside a temple, but the temple washed away in a tsunami. It really is an incredible sight.

There's Gen! This was one of the nicest days (weather-wise) we've had here. April has been very pleasant overall. I'm dreading the summer. My hair isn't going to like the rainy season. Apparently it rains almost every day and it's sweltering. Fun.

Some pretty flowers on the temple ground.

This is the inside of the Buddha. It costs 20 yen to go inside (about 20 cents). It's made of bronze and (obviously) hollow inside. There have been some restorations, such as reinforcing the neck and shoring up the foundation, but overall it's intact. How amazing that it has been standing for nearly 800 years.

Buddha's sandals.

In other news, people are freaking out about the swine flu and there aren't even any cases here. Apparently there was a scare yesterday. A Japanese woman came back from LA with the flu, but it was just regular flu. The airports have thermal sensors to detect fever. Gen's company has stopped all international travel. I hope everyone at home is happy and healthy.