Over the weekend the annual summer Tanabata festival was held in the Asakusa area of Tokyo stretching almost 2 kilometres down one of the streets. Tanabata is held on the seventh day of the seventh month and is also known as the star festival. The Tanabata festival in Asakusa had the usual festival staples of toriyaki, beer and people along with a number of Hawaiian dancers. The street where the festival was held was spectacularly decorated along with great views of the Tokyo tower.
A quick 2 hour trip on the Shinkansen took us to Kyoto. Kyoto was once Japan's capital and the emperor’s residence between 794 and 1868.
Just up the street I decided I needed a coffee and standing in a Starbucks I turned around and saw this amazing temple just sitting behind a normal street facade.
Gion is apparently Kyoto most famous geisha district (we only saw one “true” geisha in the back of a show as he was running to the theatre for the show – originally geisha were men). Gion is filled with shops, restaurants and teahouses. The area contains is also famous for it traditional wooden merchant houses.
The last thing you'd expect in Kyoto
Fushimi Inari Shrine (1000 torii) is an important Shinto shrine to the god or rice Inari (as the taxi driver took great pains to explain). It’s famous for its thousands of vermilion tori gates which are over a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 m.
Still don't know what these guys were selling.
If you go out down to the park today you're sure of a big surprise, because today's the day the Zombies have their picnic. Mmmmmm brains.
A semi regular meeting of Tokyo zombies at Yoyogi park – you can’t call it a club, apparently, obvious really when you consider that they are the living dead. Some of their dedication is amazing, while most of the participants prepared in the park big up to the guy dressed in army fatigues – he caught a train dressed up…
