Walking the turtle
You see lots of pets wondering around Tokyo with their owners and enjoying the sunshine. To my mind this was a really strange way to try and meet guys.

This is one of the stranger pets, so far, that I have seen out taking in some sun and exercise. The homeless guys in the background were just as bemused as I was.






Yep - it really was a turtle.


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Which Side? The backside.
Wondering around one of the local subway stations and I saw this sign. It raised a number of questions about which backside and the picture and arrows were aligned wonderfully.


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Meiji Jingu shrine
The Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine is located in a large forest just near the Harajuku train station. The shrine was completed in 1921 and is set in the middle of 180 acres of forest planted with over 100,000 trees donated from all over Japan and around the world to commemorate the Emperor Meiji.






Depending on the entrance to the park you use you can walk for a kilometer or so through the forest and then you come across a huge Totii (traditional Japanese gate) which is commonly found at the entry to Shinto (and other) shrines.



The Meiji Jingu Shrine is still active and we were lucky enough to witness a Shinto wedding party procession. A typical wedding party procession is led by two priests and two shrine maidens, followed by the couple under a red umbrella, and finally family and friends. There was also a crowd on hand to witness the whole procession.







The shrine is also a place for tour groups to visit and there was this particular group of 40 people that had obviously got their bright white leisure suits as part of the sign on fee (or they were looking for the space ship?).


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Emperor’s secret fishing spot
Like all good secret fishing spots it takes some knowledge of the right path to follow and some bush bashing to get there.



Then when you discover that other people had been at the secret spot you begin to wonder if all the effort had been worthwhile especially when you see the sort of evidence of others having visited the spot beforehand.





And while you may not tell many people the exact location of your secret spots there are some signs that even the most novice fisher person interprets as ownership.




Even if the fishing is like that laid on for an Emperor.


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The happiest place on earth
I don’t know if this is still the theme of the Disneyland people but we decided it was time to head to the Disney Park to see what all the fuss was about. While we didn’t manage to see the headless one we did get a good look at Mount Fuji on the way to the entrance to the park.







Japan is crowded and Disney land is no exception. This translates into lines, lines for rides, lines for toilets, lines to get into souvenir shops, lines to buy curried popcorn, lines to buy roasted turkey legs, lines for every little thing.




The good thing about the crowds (if there is one while you’re stuck in a 60 minute queue to go on one of the rides) you get a chance to watch the crowds and notice things like how many people get into the spirit of things. These girls are an example with their varying coloured Mickey Mouse hats that you can get. There were couples dressed in exceeding expensive designer clothes, designer sun glasses and all the accessories with these hats sat squarely on their expensive haircuts.




A highlight of the day was the parade. Thirty minutes of entertainment and colour of all the best known Disney shows.


 
 





There is also the chance to get up nice and close with some of your favourite Disney characters. The queue to get photos taken with these charters was hundreds of people long and over an hour. As you can see, with photos of random Japanese people, this is very serious business.






As you would expect this place also attracts its share of random fans. You would have to take a good hard look at yourself in the room of mirrors if you were this guy. The person dressed in the Eeyore costume actually looked him up and down for a minute or so, shook his head, and then agreed to a photo – wouldn’t that tell you something? I wonder how the Mickey Mouse hats smell after hours in the "smoking room"? I did try and get a photo with a couple of Goths as well that were dressed in all their standard Goth garb but were also wearing their Mickey mouse hats and grinning from ear to ear – it didn’t work out. As I have written previously there are some Goths in Japan that just don’t seem to get the whole Goth thing, I am now determined to find some “real” Japanese Goths.







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Santa was very good to me
Santa really looked after me this year and put an electronic book reader under our Christmas tree. This thing is amazing, uses e-ink to display the pages, can store over 1000 books, weighs next to nothing, lasts over a week on a single charge and has wireless connectivity to get books from Amazon in under 60 seconds. Sensational.


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Yokohama Chinatown
After 1 hour on the train we arrived at Yokohama Chinatown which is considered to be Japan's largest Chinatown.

In the mid 1800’s Yokohama was one of the first ports opened to foreign traders and many Chinese traders settled in the city.

Yokohama Chinatown is a relatively small area that is characterised by numerous small and narrow streets with four colourful gates over the various entrances to Chinatown.








The streets are lined with numerous food stalls and restaurants with the smell of roasted chestnuts hanging in the air. One of the restaurants had a particularly inspired display of lobsters and lunch came from a stall selling steamed buns (manju). An area the size of a larger modern shopping centre contains in excess of 500 restaurants and cafes.






The Kanteibyo temple is in the center of Chinatown, was constructed in 1873 and is dedicated to the Chinese god of good business and prosperity.



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Blessed are the cars
One thing that Tokyo does not lack is temples. While I was sitting down having a coffee and reading about things to do in Tokyo the Fukagawa Fudoson (and the nearby Tomioka Hachiman-gu) caught my attention.

The Fukagawa Fudoson temple dates back to the 18th century and the Tomioka Hachiman-gu was founded in 1627. The length of time that some of these temples have stood in the one spot (no matter how many times they have been rebuilt) is amazing.

The Fukagawa Fudoson is a Buddhist traffic temple where people come to pray for road safety. This also means that people bring their new cars to be blessed.



When you enter the temple area you notice the different wash stand that has a number of stylized dragons providing water to cleanse you.



As we visited just before new years there were a number of ceremonies happening including this blessing.





As you approach the temple you enter a street lined with stalls selling all sorts of weird and wonderful things to catch your attention including boiled lollies.







There is also a smaller shrine with a monk out the front taking donations and handing out blessings.



The Tomioka Hachiman-gu shrine is a lot quieter than the Fukagawa Fudoson temple. Birds abound and there are no crowds. The whole temple area is shielded from the surrounding buildings by bamboo and huge trees.



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