Because we spent most of our time training, I do not have a lot of "tourist" pictures to show of Tokyo proper.
The view from our hotel room. The building in the center sits squarely in front of Mt. Fuji:
At night:
A street not too far from our hotel:
The trees are light up, I think, to replicate cherry blossoms:
Tokyo Tower from Asakusa:
We have been to Asakusa, including Sensoji, several times (here, here, and here) so I did not take many pictures there (we went on our annual shopping expedition for tabi, obi, sword supplies, and souvenirs):
However, the nearby Shino Shrine was preparing for Setsubun, the last day of the Lunar Winter. There were several stalls selling food.
We tried amazake, which is a sweet fermented drink from rice which is non-alcoholic. It was delicious!
(As a note, it was lucky we went when we did. The next day on Sestsubun there were 15,000-20,000 people here!)
The temple lit up. We suspected the lanterns were sponsored by local businesses:
Lanterns with The Great Wave off Kanegawa, painted by Hokusai:
Leave it to me to find the rabbit:
Really enjoy these shots TB, cost of the amazake? Curious about the temperatures during your visit also. Good to see the change from vertical to horizontal in cell phone use......:) Thanks for giving a brief glimpse into another culture.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, the amazuke was 600 yen, or about $3.80.
DeleteOur temperatures were really good for Winter in Tokyo. Daytime temps were mid 40's to low 50's (the highest days being our last two in Japan), nights in the low to mid 30's. No rain, although we had a super brief snow flurry randomly one evening returning from training. That said, the day after we left, they had a reasonably big snowstorm.
I hear everyone talk about how clean it is in Tokyo and yet seeing pictures of it still amazes me.
ReplyDeleteEd, it really is. One may see the odd piece of trash here and there, but it is nothing like in the U.S.
DeleteInterestingly as well, there are almost no public trash cans. Recycling yes, trash cans no. You typically take your trash with you to either your home or one of the occasional ones you might find - for us, bathrooms in public training facilities (but even there, not always).
Perhaps this speaks to a deeply-rooted cynicism, but I find the lighted trees and the lantern arrangements charming when I *know* I would think the like were kitschy and overwrought if done here Stateside.
ReplyDeleteAs if... I believe on some core level that our own society would Try Much Too Hard in the attempt and make it some grand, overblown spectacle. Glitz and glamour, light and noise... the peacocking of it all imposes on my mind if I think about it.
No, thank you. Give me a quiet spectacle, at best. Calm, collected... confident in itself. Nothing there to prove; it simply is, and you may share in it if you wish.
P_P - You are not at all far off the mark. Especially in the modern era. Too often it seems like the only thing we can do is overproduce something.
DeleteWe have lost the art of the quiet and understated.
The lanterns making the wave painting is really nice. The fermented rice drink sounds really nice too.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, the first record of amazuke is around 720 A.D. in the Nihon Shoki, the second oldest history book of Japan in existence. I have read about it for years; it was fun to finally get to experience it. It was pretty tasty.
DeleteHere is one recipe. Of note, it is fermented and can be lightly alcoholic as well (which I have also read about): https://revolutionfermentation.com/en/blogs/fermented-beverages/amazake/