The gathering storm.
Anyhow, August did end with a couple of typhoons back to back.
There’s a shrine nearby, too. Not all shrines are well-maintained, however. Above is an example: the Leaning Lamp of Edogawabashi,
Further along Yamate Dori, the intrepid explorer will arrive at the Shakujii River . . . its siver rapids culverted by stout gray concrete.
And on its gravel I saw a family of fresh water cormorants.
Another bike ride led me past the crossing of Kawagoe Kaido and Yamate Dori. And there, on a corner of unadopted land, I found a collection of Japanese junk.
Not far from Toshima En, and the Harry Potter exhibition, there is a street of temples leading to a cemetery. The last temple on the left is dedicated to babies and food . . . as you might notice.
AUGUST
Maybe the hottest time of the year in Tokyo, although typhoons that push hot and humid air up from the south do tend to suck cooler air from the north as they go past.
The flowers, like the lotus above, give way to fruits, and fruits drop their seeds.
A drop of cooling water.
Time for a few summer bugs.
I had to go to the long, covered shopping arcade in Oyama. All the time, I felt I was being watched . . .
It’s tempting to play with the bright light and the strong colors of July. And why not? Every man an Andy Warhol.
JULY
Yes, another hot month goes by, so there are plenty of gaudy flowers and interesting insects.
Here are seven characters from Japanese spiritual mythology. They are not idols for worship, although people do pay them respect. They represent influences in the environment, something like the Greek muses, that can be appealed to . . . a kind of “sympathetic magic” perhaps.
These snaps come from walks around my neighborhood in Nerima City, northwest Tokyo, and Nakano City bordering to the south.
Nerima is a comparatively green, suburban area. Even in my memory of Tokyo, it used to be mostly market-garden land. I’ve watched the housing slowly come to dominate. But Japanese people love flowers, and the new homes have gardens.
Nakano is markedly more urban, and possibly the mosts densely populated part of the metropolis. The area around the station, especially near the north exit, has shopping mall and uncountable numbers of bars, clubs, game centers, and small eateries.
JUNE
Coming up to date after a long lapse! It’s a time for flowers, the first fruit, and bike rides.
A little respite from the back alleys of Nakano . . . in the pond at Tetsugakudo (aka Philosophers’ Gulch).
Nakano, not too far away , is one of the most densely populated urban areas on the planet.
Around the northeast side leading away from the station is a locale of narrow alleys with small drinkeries, eateries, massageries, gameries and other delights for the tired salaryman.
The whole is in a constant state of upheaval as bits open, close, are renovated, or are demolished.
Representatives of the Saitama Young Farmers’ Association discuss problems with this year’s chilli pepper harvest.
Later in May . . .
we went to visit a winery in the hills in Saitama. The wine was . . . erm . . . original. Anyhow, I can’t drink more than a sip or two, so I looked for interesting things to snap.
What’s next?
A bike ride to treeful Yoyogi Park, where hunting and barbecuing the local fauna are strictly forbidden . . . in English just in case you might miss the point.
Yoyogi (“Trees forever!”, or something like that) Park holds the celebrated Meiji Jingu shrine. It’s always crowded with tourists, wedding parties, and celebrations of many kinds. On this occasion, there was an exhibition of tachibana . . . standing flowers.
Every country has its culinary weirdo. The UK has black pudding (made of blood and fat) for example, while France has snails and frog legs. In Japan, it’s the fugu: a potentially lethal fish. The fugu’s liver contains a deadly neurotoxin . . . and this must be removed by and expert fuguisto. Occasionally, however, the poison is also present in other tissues. So you can never be quite sure that you’ll leave the restaurant alive. Imagine the thrill . . .
Well, it livens up the tedium of backstreet Oyama.
May
I took a left turn and found myself passing a temple I’d forgotten about. It was a sunny day, and flowery . . . although the wisteria was past its best. Still, a very peaceful place and easy on the eye.
Like many temples, this has a special interest in caring for children, so there are many statuettes of thast kind.
END OF APRIL
Catching up fast . . . there was another trip to Ginza. This time, an Italian fayre upstairs at Mitsukoshi in which an old friend was participating.
Harashina, met in our courting days, now has his own restaurant near Tokyo Tower. The chef trained with a master in Milan, so the cuisine is pretty accurate, and they managed to get the maestro over for the event.
You noticed the shoes? So did I. I hadn’t seen anything like them since a Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco long ago.
But I mentioned the narrow alleyway that slices through the Ginza area. Let’s follow it a little way.
It has shops, clubs, a shrine, mysterious doorways, and even traffic cones.
Lupin, by the way, is a comic-book and TV cartoon hero . . . a good natured thief, somewhat like The Saint, or Robin Hood.
Waiting for an elevator. An interesting, asymmetrical face high above the street.
I annot identify the sultry temptress on the wine barrel. But on the right is a national icon: Peko Chan.
The cultural significance of Peko Chan cannot be overstated. She is the seasonally dressed mascot of the Fujiya confectionary chain (their motto, “Dessert is love itself!”) but she is so much more.
I remember a few years ago, a young prankster stole a Peko. The judiciary were outraged, and threw the book at him. Do not mess with Peko if you value your freedom!
A LITTLE MORE UP TO DATE . . . getting there. Where? A family trip to Ginza. I’m not very keen on window-shopping at expensive emporia. For me, the big interest is a very narrow, claustrophobogenic alleyway that runs through Ginza. It’s a little world of its own. But these pics start undergound, coming up from the subway.
Cupid ?
Shrines and temples . . . well, I live surrounded by rectangular blocks of post-post-modern-neo-brutalist concrete all in shades of gray. So I think it’s natural for my eyes to seek out curves and color and idiosyncracies. On the left here is a shrine atop a hill near the offices and shops of Dogenzaka. It has (on the right) its own little song, too.
Above, you’ll see a temple devoted to beloved family pets . . . . thinking of us in heaven and wagging their tails . . . presumably (my apologies to Evelyn Waugh).
And a “shout out,” as YouTubers put it, to an inventive neighbor who has motorised a shopping bike, and seems to have got it registered as a legit vehicle.
Lovely as they are, the cherries do pose a big problem for hay fever sufferers like me. They all flower at the same time, shedding metric tonnes of biochemical warfare.
Starting in the south of the country, the pink wave spreads north over a period of 2 to 3 weeks, pleasing our eyes as it does . . . but wrecking our respiratory tracts.
So here’s a nice ivy, and a construction site where Itabashi Ku is making an underground storage cistern for flood prevention. Guranteed non-allergenic.
Yes, they do try to pretty the place up . . . which brings me to the cherry blossoms. The entire length of the river is overhung with cherries, and they’re almost all clones from one hybrid variety. They do not bear fruit, and they’re very prone to fungal diseases, but they are spectacular . . . despite the pollen.
LAZY
I’ve been lazy recently, so I have an enormous backlog of bits and pieces. It’s now June! So let’s try to catch up a bit.
Some more about my neighborhood. I live near a culverted river. Since the land around has been drained and built on, the local authoities now have to arrange for underground overflow facilities for times of flood . . . a necessary but expensive compromise.
As well as being well connected, this bit of Tokyo is bike-riding close to some very nice temple/shrines, gardens, and parks. So I can get genteel exercise without joining an expensive fitness club.
One local temple has been rated as No.1 in Kanto . . . on a scale I don’t pretend to understand. Elder daughter and I visited by chance to find a procession underway, honoring local children.
My humble abode is on the 4th floor of a venerable (by Tokyo standards) “mansion” in the north-west of the conurbation.
Mansion, of course, means a multi-occupation building . . . in this case 14 floors high with ten apartments on each floor, so roughly 500 residents. A small village, I guess.
The area is dominated by two north-south highways, three subway services, and surface rail.
I do like to photograph colorful, shapely stuff. But Tokyo is a very lived-in, workaday place where hard working people inhabit small apartments, culverted rivers carry rainwater out through the concrete canyons into the bay, and expressways tear through neighborhoods.
More flowers? Of course. It’s that time of year. But the early plums also make for early fruit. Maybe we could pickle that . . . hmmm . . .
Yes, as well as Tokyo Dome, there’s an amusement park next door . . . some antique shops . . . and even the headquarters of the Japan Accordion Players’ Association.
Younger daughter and I managed a weekday trip to Korakuen, the garden next door to Tokyo Dome, near Ochanomizu. Some Chinese rock bands were sound-checking for the evening’s performance, but despite the soundscape the landscape was still beautiful.
One temple, behind the shopping arcade, has a very well-kept garden. I was lucky to find the fruit trees in full bloom.
APRIL . . . time flies. Warmer, dry weather and a chance to cycle around. This time a visit to Koenji.
I lived there a long time ago, but was always too busy to just wander around.
Cafe Earth is open for lunches only. It’s up a backstreet somewhere between the station and the General Hospital. Go past “My Basket” and keep looking right.
They don’t exactly advertise, so this is a free puff.
He’s not exactly alone, though.
I have some interesting neighbors.
LATE MARCH
Walking around my neighborhood, in northwest Tokyo. Suburbs have their attractions and their quirks. This chap seems to have been carved by a neighbor who then placed it in her little front garden.
I moseyed through the garden just as the flowers were opening. And I found a young couple doing wedding photos.
Edogawabashi Koen (park) is around the junction of Meiji Dori and Mejiro Dori near Waseda. It’s home to two notably attractive gardens. One of these is regularly open to the public.
These appear to be the same grandad in a variety of poses. They’re resident at a temple in Nakano Sakaue, just downhill south from the big crossroad.
These two old geezers are residents of Philosophers’ Gulch (Tetsugaku Do in Nakano). You might recognize Gandhi on the left.
MARCH 2024
My old bike died, but I got a good 2nd hand replacement, so I started cycling round northwest Tokyo shrines and temples again. This time I was looking for characters. Some are featured here.
Our boy immediate left is protecting the entrance to a temple; the baby dragon on the right is dispensing clean water to wash your hands before prayers.
February 2024 HANEDA AIRPORT HANGAR TRIP
Elder daughter works for ANA, keeping your Boeing going. She got me on a trip to wander through a couple of hangars, looking at the planes and the equipment. We were met by this little chap with the totally non-threatening squeaky voice.
Shrines are often populated by statues of animals and guardian spirits.
A shrine close to my apartment. The dragon is for washing your hands and mouth. The other is a “Lion/Dog” (koma inu) guarding a bell tower.
A temple close to my apartment in northwest Tokyo.
SHRINES AND TEMPLES
I’ll go into more detail about this in the future. But for now, Christianity came late to Japan. For a long time, its spread was restricted, and it’s still very much a minority following.
The native spiritual traditions are Shinto and Buddhism. Notice I’m not calling them “religions” ? Again, more on that in the future.
Shinto centers of worship and called shrines. Buddhist centers are called temples.
Shrines tend to be in natural settings with trees, water, rocks, and depictions of guardian spirits or influences belonging to the locality. Worship is mostly a private, individual communion.
Temples are Buddhist. They are similar to shrines in some ways, but much more formal, more congregational, and more prone to displays of gilded opulence.
However, there is a lot of overlap between the two in practice. Shrines and temples often sit side by side.
OBI again
Obi may still be woven by hand, as you can see here.
OBI
The Obi is the wide waistband that holds the kimono together. Obi are a colorful art form in their own right.
On the left here, we have a proud obi vendor.
On the right, are a selection of other obi.
KIMONO again2
Wife, Hiroko, and I recently went to an exhibition of Kimono in (of course) Ginza, the poshest part of town.
It was attended by people who wear traditional garb, as well as by admirers like us.
I’ve tried to select some of the interesting snaps that resulted.
KIMONO again
Three other features of Tokyo life here:
Girls have got a lot taller over recent decades.
iPhones may as well be glued to the ears of most young people. I imagine they’ll be implanted soon.
Small dogs also get dressed for the occasion, and pushed around in a baby carriage.
KIMONO
I’m adding a little about kimono. Very few people wear traditional dress these days. Kimono are worn by some rich people, but are mostly reserved for special occasions, and almost always worn by women. The informal Yukata are more common in summer.
The girls here are celebrating “Coming of Age Day” ( 成人式) a ceremony for all with a birthday during this year. Boys usually wear a business suit now, but the girls still get dolled up in rented kimonos and fur stoles.
At this time of year, Tokyo does enjoy some dry weather – frigid, but dry and sunny. And out come the plums. Well, I think that’s what they are. They make my eyes itchy and my nose runny, but they’re very pretty blossoms.
Here’s one guy who seems to be feeling the cold.
Jan. 26th
Looking at this January sky – a mix of sunshine and snow clouds. When gales have blown the autumn leaves from the branches, you can see the truth: crows really do build their nests from wire coat hangers.
Jan.1st 2024 a New Year
Dawn was icy cold and beautiful. But otherwise 2024 got off to a bumpy start. There was a prolonged series of earthquakes around the Niigata, Noto, Sado coastal region. Tsunamis were triggered, and some buildings destroyed.
Then there was a crash at Haneda airport between a passenger plane landing and a coast guard aircraft waiting to take off.
The commercial passengers and crew were evacuated safely, but sadly 5 of the coast guard crew died.
New Year’s brunch, kindly provided by Aunt Midori. This style of food is called O-Sechi. It’s all cold except for the soupy rice cakes, but it’s all delcious.
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