Ueno Park

Yesterday, I went to Ueno Park in Tokyo. It's a very big park, just outside Ueno Station. The first time I was there was in 2007. The area that is Ueno Park was originally Kan'eiji Temple. That was destroyed during the Meiji Restoration. The land for the park was granted in 1924. The National Museum, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and several other museums are there. There is also a Zoo.

I went there to see an exhibit at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum called "Morris to Mingei". I'm a big fan of arts and crafts style, and art nouveau, as well as Japanese art. William Morris was part of the beginning of the English arts and crafts movement.

When I got to Tokyo, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The little thermometer I have hanging on my purse indicated 80 degrees at one point during the day.

First, I went to Tokyo station. Maruzen bookstore is one of the few places that open at 9:00 in the morning, and they have a large English book section. Maruzen is on the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. That's the side that looks like the original station.

En route, I saw this on the side of an ice cream vending machine.













Maruzen had a display of cat art. While it was all very cute stuff, it was priced out of my range.

















On the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station, is the Yaesu Book Center. I had never been there before, although the bookstore in Utsunomiya station is a branch. This one is eight stories high.

Here is a statue outside the store. Japan is like this -- old Japan and bleeding-edge technology blend seamlessly.

The foreign language (books in foreign languages, mostly English) section is small, but they had a neat series of bilingual business books.

Back at Ueno station, I found a very long escalator.














Here is the Panda Bridge between Ueno Station and Ueno Park. There is a very large Panda statue just outside the station exit there. It's a good landmark if you use the coin lockers, like I did.

There are homeless people living in Ueno park, and I couln't always distinguish between the men who were retired and enjoying the weather, the ones who were recovering from the night before, and the ones who lived there.

In Ueno Park, here is the National Museum. I visited here in 2007. It's a very nice museum, especially if you like Japanese art and history.













There are all kinds of performing artists in the park. This guy was pretty good.













Here is the TokyoMetropolitan Art Museum.












Of course, I couldn't take pictures of the exhibit. Morris' things are more neo-gothic, in my opinion. He worked with textiles and furniture and anyone who wanted to decorate a house for D&D would enjoy his stuff. I wouldn't mind a room of it, but I like the later craftsman style.
After I left the exhibit, I saw and exhibit of bonsai trees. Most bonsai are not as small as the ones you can buy at Target.

Here is a cute umbrella sculpture.








There are signs in the park warning not to feed the birds or cats. There are also people in the park who do just that. I found a statue, and before I could take a picture of it, I saw a cute black and white cat. It was shy, but a man (who the cat obviously knew) held the cat for me to take its picture. I had some cat treats in my purse and was able to buy some photo ops. But there was another man who knew what this kitty really liked -- cheese. He even gave me some to feed the cat.

Note: not only is it legal to drink in the park, but you can buy beer there as well. It was warm enough to enjoy a nice cool one.











A crow.




































Here is the statue.










Here is another kitty.












Here are several torii gates.









Some trees were blooming already. I think they are plum blossoms.


































There is a little island in a lake in the park with a Benzaiten shrine. Benzaiten is the Japanese version of the Hindu goddess Sarasvati. She is the goddess of music and eloquence, and also one of the Seven Lucky Gods.













Ducks!












Here is the marshy lake in the middle of the city.












All in all, it was a very nice day. I even got home at a reasonable hour!

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.

R.I.P. Moogie

One of the problems with going overseas is that life goes on at home, and sometimes you miss things.

Moogie, my kitty of over 18 years, passed away Sunday morning (Saturday afternoon, there). She had had reduced kidney function for a number of years, and it finally caught up with her. I've missed her since I got here, and I'll miss her even more when I get home and she's not there.

I hope we spoiled her as much as she deserved. She was the first cat I had from kittenhood, and she'll always be my #1 kitty.

All cats have their own personalities. Among the other cats that have graced our home with their presence, TD thought she was a human, Clark thought he was a dog, but Moogiechan knew it was best to be a cat. Especially one that had her humans wrapped around her paw.

Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts about Mugs.

Yokohama 横浜

Yesterday I went to Yokohama. I traveled around a bit, and have lots of pictures to share with you!

I went to see Sojiji, which is the head temple for the Soto Zen sect in Japan. Soto Zen focuses on gradual enlightenment though meditaion. The Rinzai sect, in contrast believes that sudden enlightenment is possible and tries to achieve this through koan, or riddles/puzzles. "What is the sound of one hand clapping" is a famous one.


















































Near a small wooded area, I saw a woman who brought food for some feral cats. Of course, I took pictures.
You can see the short and bent tails on these cats. That is quite common among cats in Japan, and is the origin of the Japanese Bobtail breed. These guys were cute, not to skittish, but definitely made me want to take them to a vet to get cleaned up a bit.














I then went to Yokohama's Chinatown, which is the largest in the world. The first shop I saw could be any New Age shop anywhere. They even sold dreamcatchers!

A lot of shops had panda themes.

Here is a Chinese gate in Chinatown. There are several in Chinatown.






This is the smallest and most specialized bar I'vee every seen. Apparently, they like to focus on doing only one thing -- serving Guinness. But they don't do it particularly well -- it wasn't staffed when I went by.




Here is why I went to Yokohama in the first place: Beer.

There was a beer festival in Yokohama. Earlier in the year, there had been one in Tokyo and Osaka. It is organized by the Japanese Craft Beer Association. For an entrance fee of Y4100, you get a 50 ml glass and are free to sample the over 120 beers offered.

I tried Japanese craft beers, a Tahitian beer, Belgian Abbey beer and a Palestinian beer. But my favorite was the sweet vanila stout. If you like the idea of Guiness floats or Guinness cheesecake, you'd like this.
Here is a line of folks waiting to get in.










This is inside Osambashi Terminal, where the festival was held. As befits a building on the end of a pier that serves as a terminal for passenger ferries, it had a nice nautical design.

Here are happy samplers.










These folks are taking a food break.









Here is the ham on a stick that I had.









Yokohama has some interesting old architecture. This building is nicknamed "King Tower", because the top looks like a king's had on playing cards. Sailors could recognize Yokohama port by these towers. It was really the prefectural office.

It was destroyed in the Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and rebuilt in 1928.

I think it's beautiful. I love weathered copper!













This next building is "Jack Tower". It's the Port Opening Memorial Hall.

There is also a "Queen Tower", but I wasn't particularly looking for these when I found them. I asked a man at King what the building was, because I liked it so much. He also pointed "Jack" out to me.

Here you can see all three towers-- I've marked them. They are in order, left to right, King, Jack and Queen. Queen was a customs house. Since it was a national building, it was designed to be taller than King, which was only a prefectural building.

I left Yokohama at 18:17 and didn't get back to Karasuyama until after 23:30. But I didn't take the shink. I will definitely go back to Yokohama.

Tidbits

There is a song that I've heard played at the seafood section of several grocery stores. It's called Osakana Tengoku (おさかな天国). Apparently, it was a hit song at one point. It has several almost-puns in the lyrics, so it's kind of funny too, or so I've read. You can watch You Tube video of the song here.

For several evenings, I've heard a cat outside Yamamoto House. Not loud or long enough to be annoying or anything like that. Just enough to make me curious about the cat. Well, today I went out late to go the grocery store, and came across a cat sitting on a car. I think this is my serenading cat.


I now have a video game!! I bought a Nintendo DS Lite today. For very academic reasons -- really! There are several "games" available for studying kanji (Chinese characters) and improving your handwriting of them. I now have two kanji "games". The one I got for handwriting was so popular that when it first came out, stores restricted purchases to one per customer. The initial supply actually sold out. Now, imagine trying to sell something like that in the US for people to improve their handwriting!

Today we had our safety session for the Mt. Fuji climb. After that, I went shopping with another woman in my class for any supplies we didn't have. I guess I'm one of the few that brought hiking boots to Japan. I have high energy food, a water bag with straw that fits in my backpack, some oxygen, clothes for hot and cold weather, sunscreen, a hat, a parasol, a camera, and various other things to deal with the possible ugliness of altitude sickness. We are going most of the way up Friday night, finishing up on Saturday morning, then coming down. I was told not to plan anything for Sunday. Still, I'm looking forward to it!