Daikoku-do


The Shinobazu pond is located in the Ueno area of Tokyo and is natural pond made up of three separate areas, the cormorant pond, the boat pond and the lotus pond along with several islands. On one of the islands sits the Daikoku do. We were walking in another part of the park surrounding the pond and crossed the lotus pond which meant that we walked around the back of the Daikoku-do.


In the shrine there is an image of the Daikokuten. He is considered the god of wealth, specifically the harvest, or of the household and particularly the kitchen.


To get to the actual island you have to cross a small stone bridge which we will have to go back and visit sometime and visit the islands two shrines.


This view of the island is across the lotus pond which would be spectacular at the right time of year with the lotus in full flower. Even now, with the new growth of spring, it looked remarkable.


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Thai Festival 2010
There are a number of festivals that are held across Tokyo for any number of reasons. On the weekend the 10th annual Thai festival was held near Yoyogi Park to celebrate Thailand’s culture and food. While the main stage had all sorts of Thai dancing and martial arts exhibitions it was obvious that most people were at the festival to have Thai food.




We arrived at 10 am, opening time, and the crowds were already beginning to build giving some indication to the popularity of this event with Tokyo people.


One of the obvious attractions at the festival is the ability to buy Thai mangos - obvious because of the large number of people carry trays of mangos around. There was a long queue at this stall with people buying 3-4 trays of mangos. Right next door to the stall was a courier companies stall where people dropped their purchases off to be delivered.



There was also the mandatory Singha beer stall that, even at 11 in the morning, was doing a great trade. I managed to avoid the temptation - just.



Then it was time to find something to eat. By lunchtime the crowds had increased dramatically and just moving became a challenge. You could buy ay sort of Thai food that took your fancy including green and red curries – just finding somewhere to sit and eat was a problem.

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Yoyogi Park
Spring has well and truly arrived in Tokyo and it was time to get out and sit on some grass and just enjoy some sunshine before the summer heat and humidity.

Yoyogi Park is a huge green space just near Harajuku station and is obviously well loved by everyone who can get there including runners, bike riders and musicians (there were different guys around the park playing guitar, violin and a didgeridoo – all of them very good).



There were also some very weird goings on, including 20-30 groups of school girls doing the hair and make up of one subject each - reality TV?


And there was also some random guy sunbathing beside the main fountain in his Speedos – see if you can spot him - classy.


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Where is the children’s one?
Walking around Narita airport I came across one of their smoking rooms. I was wondering if they have special underage rooms – I couldn’t find it if they did.

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For who?
Japan has a zero tolerance for drugs, absolute zero - and then you come across a shop like this...

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Japanese YMCA
Across from the apartment where I am living there are a crew of builders working. At 8 am, every day, on the dot they start their day with a briefing and their morning exercises that last for about 10 minutes (as you can see some are more into it than others).

Now they just need to find the other three characters and they can have a mass village people revival.


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Running in Rome
One of the good things about running in Rome is that you really do manage to have most of the place to yourself. On a recent trip I went for an early run one morning and managed to see a lot of the major Rome historical sites without having to share them with thousands of German tourists.

Hard to beat.


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Japanese reminders everywhere
I had the pleasure of spending another week in Rome for work and prior to flying home went for a walk around "downtown" Rome.

In a sign that it was time to be heading home I came across this guy dressed as a sushi platter. He was in fact advertising a "fusion" restuarant - a fusion with what I couldn't work out.

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