Nekobukuro

On Saturday, I visited a part of Tokyo that I had only passed through previously -- Ikebukuro　(池袋）. It's north of Shunjuku, and on the Yamanote Line.

Tokyu Hands is a chain of stores I first found in Nagoya. I love these stores! They have a really neat collection of stuff -- DIY, decor, health gadgets, travel goods, craft supplies, and what not. There is one in Ikebukuro, which has a unique section on the top floor: Nekobukuro.

Neko (猫）is Japanese for cat. This is a place where you can pay money to go and hang out with 20 or so cats, along with other people, for as long as you like (within their business hours). It's only 600 yen, and a nice lady was handing out 100 yen off coupons on the street outside, so I HAD to go!! Before you say, "Who'd spend money for that?", remember that most people in Tokyo live in apartments and can't have cats or dogs.

They have several different breeds of cat. Plus, they have all kinds of walkways and steps for the cats. Being cats, many of the cats were sleeping. Or trying to. Not all the cats were out among the people. Some were in their living quarters -- visible but not pettable. And it was a small area, so only so many people could get in at once. Overall, it was pretty fun for me.

Here are some pics. You can see all the kitty pics here.

Here are some of the walkways for the cats. The one with the steps goes through a hole in the wall.
























This one is a "mike" (mee-kay). That refers to the three colors, white, black and brown.

Vending machines

I'm going to make several small posts, instead of one big one -- it will make handling the pictures easier.

It's well-known that vending machines are common here, and that they sell darn near anything. The most common one, though, sells beverages. Both hot and cold beverages are usually available, with coffee coming in small cans. I've also had hot lemonade. There are also the sort of machines that dispense your drink into a paper cup.

I've seen machines that dispense alcohol -- beer and sake-- but I haven't found any around Nasukarasuyama.

I haven't seen a lot of machines selling food. I saw a few at rest stops, like the ones near Disneyland or Mt. Fuji. These included machines that heated your food so it was hot when it came out.

The ramen shops that sell tickets for the food right by the door don't count.

So, I had to take pictures when I saw these.
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This one is selling a variety of snacks.















This one is selling the equivalent of energy bars.













This one is new to me, though. It's selling books!

It's Fall!

It's fall/autumn for sure. I saw some frost on the ground going to work today. Next month the heaters in the classrooms get turned on. Yay!

Actually, the classrooms aren't the bad part -- it's the hallways. On sunny days like today, the sun shines into the classrooms which also have around 30 live bodies in them. The hallway is on the shady side of the building, and the doors to the school are left open, so cold air comes in, and goes down halls. There are no fire door separating the stairs from the halls, all the halls are cold.

Yesterday was the third Thursday in November (also payday). What that means is the 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau is out. I had never had any, so I bought a bottle. It was Y1950 for 750 ml. Wine is spendy here. I was surprised to see that American whisky sells for about the same price here as it does in the US. Beer is anywhere from Y115-350 a can, and you don't save any money by buying a six-pack. They sell cans that are the same size as American beer, as well as a larger can. Wine, however, is expensive. (The exchange rate, as I'm writing this is $1 = Y95, meaning the dollar is weaker than normal.)

My impression of the wine: meh. But it is only a few weeks old...

Shichi-go-san

Today is Shichi-go-san (七五三）. It's literally "seven-five-three". It's a festival for girls age 3 and 7, and boys age 3 and 5.　　Parents take their children, to the shrine. The children also receive special candy that is supposed to ensure healthy growth and longevity.

I went to Futaarayama Shrine, in Utsunomiya. Here are the steps to the shrine. Behind the wall on the left are some buildings being torn down. I don't remember what they were, and have no idea what will go up in their place.








Here is a cute little girl. The skirt-like part of her outfit is actually hakama, which are very wide legged pants.













This boy is also wearing hakama, and looks very unhappy about something!














Here is another girl all dressed up.

Fall Festival

Here is tengu mask. You can't really see it, but the nose is really long. Tengu are supernatural beings in Japan. They are demons, but not necessarily bad ones. It depends on the tengu, I guess.









Here is some carving on the temple.







This nice lady and her daughter agreed to be photographed. You can see the difference between a very young girl's kimono and a married woman's kimono.










These dog balloons appear to "walk" on their paper feet. They sold quite well.




Here is the procession going into the temple. After this, the head priest chanted a sutra and some prayers.

This is the mikoshi. I think every temple and shrine has one, and they are carried around during festivals. Later we passed this group going down the road.

Here are the men with the tengu masks.














Here you can see the shoes the men with the masks are wearing. They don't look like fun!














Here is the little girl in her kimono again.















Some fall color....

Nikko again

Yesterday I went to Nikko. I have a new camera to try out -- the Canon 450D/Kiss X2/Rebel XSi, depending on where you live. I'll blog about it later. The Nikko area has lots of hiking trails, with varying degrees of fall colors.
Here is a view of the mountains from just outside the JR Nikko station.




I walked to the Tobu station and took a bus to the Kirifuri waterfall (霧降の滝). There were lots of other people there as well, and many had bigger and better cameras than me, as well as tripods. So, at least in Japan, carrying around a DSLR doesn't make you stick out!

After a short hike, here is the waterfall.


































After that, I bought a stick of dango. They are roasted mochi (sticky rice paste) balls with a sweet syrup on them. Yum!

I walked up the road a bit. This sign warns about wild monkeys in the area. I didn't see any, but I know that they like to steal things, and you're not supposed to feed them. I think the idea is to keep their caution around humans intact to avoid ugly interactions.






Further up the road, I found another road that had been blocked off to cars. After walking down that road, I found another hiking trail. It was rocky, in some it was more diagonal rocks, than a flat trail, but it followed a beautiful creek. And, as you can see, I wasn't the only one taking pictures there.


















































Here is a weir. It's a small dam, used to control the water, and there are many of them in the area. Some are over 50 years old, and have been designated as historical structures.

When I returned to Utsunomiya station, there was a display of HUGE chrysanthemums, or ogiku (大菊). The Emperor's seal is a chrysanthemum.

















I had a mushroom burger at MOS Burger, with onion rings. That's one place where you can get onion rings. Usually, things that looks like onion rings here are actually squid rings.

Then, I found a craft shop in the station. I hadn't gone upstairs in the Paseo shopping area, and this was on the 3rd floor. I found some nice Noro yarn, and got enough to make a muffler.

All in all, a nice day!