Photos

I've posted a larger album for folks to browse..giving Picasa a try this time here. This blog's photo album is one level up as well though most of the blog pics are in the larger album. Captions will be added as time permits...

Back to reality

When this post goes live I'll be somewhere over the Pacific Ocean on the way home. I'll update this blog with some sort of photo gallery link once I sort through all the duplicates and horribly boring ones (and deal with jet lag). Thanks to everyone who helped out with the trip from advice, lending materials, wandering around with me, reading this site, etc. It made the trip go much smoother than it would have otherwise and helped make it more fun. :)

雨の日 What else are you going to do...

...on a rainy day except visit a cat cafe? Actually this one was a cat playground of sorts and nothing except for some souvenir stickers was sold here though it is attached to a pet shop on the 8th floor of a department store. I must have wondered into the cat cafe district in Ikebukuro as I saw 3 different ones within a minute's walk of each other. Basically the idea is that a lot of rental places won't allow pets of any kind so you go to these sorts of places to interact with cats without having to take care of them. Apparently some of the cats at this place are rescue cats which is good to see. The staff appear to take very good care of them and the cats obviously liked them. One of the staff girls had a Nikon DSLR and was taking photos regularly. They have what looks like a twitter feed going too...

This place had enough cats that they left some in slightly small themed enclosures where they were fed, could sleep, and avoid people. They seemed to occasionally rotate which ones were out in the main rooms. There were numerous perches, raceways, etc. where the cats could be out of reach of any of the people.

I bought my ticket back to the airport for tomorrow and will probably head back to Shibuya one more time to pay for an overpriced chai tea latte to stay out of the rain...

長谷寺 Hase-dera Kamakura

If you're in Kamakura this temple's definitely worth a visit. It was crowded but nothing like a Tokyo subway car. The merging of commercialism and religion in all of these touristed temples is interesting. There are truly devout people visiting these places but they may also be cash carrying tourists at the same time. This temple has a restaurant on the grounds and a yummy stall selling some rice dumplings. I'd imagine if these temples weren't tourist attractions a lot of the history and treasures would be long gone by now.

One area of the temple is dedicated to the worship of a guardian of children which, at least in Japan, means that this photo of many statues is probably really sad...

大仏 Kamakura Daibutsu

I'm not sure how to describe the Great Buddha sculpture at Kamakura. It's huge, it weighs 93 tons, it's probably close to 800 years old, it's survived numerous storms/flooding that have repeatedly destroyed temples that were built around it (so much so that they gave up and have left it in the open air for the last 500 years), and it's iconic of Japan. Kamakura's about an hour from Shinjuku on some trains on the Shonan-Shinjuku line. It's definitely something to see in person. There are only 2 larger Buddha statues in the world and both were completed in the 1990s...

Even more らーめん

I knew my new favorite ramen restaurant has a branch in Ikebukuro and it happens to be only a few blocks from the hotel. The guy at the front desk was surprised when I specifically asked for directions to that restaurant (in English since the hotel caters mostly to foreign travelers). With less than 2 full days left in Japan I'm going to have to cram in a couple visits at least. This place had a line of about a dozen people around 5:30PM but it moved fast. Inside it was similar to the Shinjuku location but with a bit less space. I *really* wanted to try their Arctic ramen but went with their signature dish that's midway up the spicy scale again. Half the fun of the place is watching people mechanically deal with the spiciness of some of the food by grabbing more tissues, wiping themselves down with a towel, downing glasses of ice water, etc.

松島 Matsushima

The main reason for heading to Sendai was to get a small taste of the region to the North of Tokyo (there be pine trees here) and see Matsushima bay. That's the Pacific Ocean you're seeing, and at similar latitudes to California, only 5000 miles away. The area is about 30 minutes by train outside of Sendai and it's small enough that you can walk from the station and see the entire area. The bay is made up of hundreds of tiny islands though only two sizable ones are accessible via bridges from the mainland. The smaller one, Oshima had some really cool Buddhist ruins/carvings, most of which are being left to the elements. Many of the carved stone tablets or sculptures are almost worn smooth.

It was nice to note, however, that even this area is not immune to Hello Kitty. To the lower right of the worn statue there was a bunch of incense and a Hello Kitty pouch (maybe to hold matches?).