Wow!
When last I left you, dear readers, Colin and I were on our way to Shinjuku, one of the bustling metropoli of Tokyo. Naturally, we had to stop in Portland first.
But then we hopped on the MAX (there’s a new Shinjuku line, did you know?) and rode on over to Tokyo. Try to picture it, dear readers: we had been hiking around in a very cold, very windy city all day, only to find ourselves, buried in layers of wool, down, and polar fleece, one a super-heated and crowded train for an hour. It was not altogether pleasant.
Anyway, we made it to the city so Colin could walk around and see all the “ADs of TOMORROW.”
Banzai!!!!!!
This included a bus for the insurance company, Aflac, with robotic cat-ducks (maneki-neko ducku) waving as we watched from the sidewalk, tissue packets with glossy ads for I-phones, and of course, blimps. Why are there so many blimps in Japan? I have no idea.
That evening we went to my host-parents’ house for a HUGE dinner. I think my host-mother was worried that Colin wouldn’t have enough to eat, so we had sushi, croquettes, an enormous salad, and all the other usual trimmings. My host father in particular, had an lovely time talking with Colin, and between the two of them, I think they were able to get some fairly complex ideas across.
Some of the 500 statues.
The next day, we went off to Ko-edo in Kawagoe to see the sights. I believe it was a popular retreat some of the muckety-mucks back in the day (i.e., the Edo period), so it has a lot of cool old crap. On the way there, we saw a magical bowl of ramen, not so old but just as culturally important, that helped to illustrate once again the advertising prowess of the Japanese.
You can look but you musn't touch.
Our first stop (one place I’d never really explored before, so it was pretty exciting for me as well…) was the Kita-in Temple and former house of some important guy who was friends with Tokogawa Ieasu (a REALLY important shogun who started the Edo period ). There were gardens and temple buildings a-plenty, so we spent a while just strolling around.
The coolest thing we saw were these 500+ statues that represented all the disciples of the buddha or something. Each one had a distinct face and posture. There’s a legend that if you want to find the one that looks most closely resembles you, you must go at night and feel around for the statue that is slightly warm. Mark it, and come back to look at it in the day time. I didn’t need to do that – I mean, look at this guy. I am totally this guy:
So happy with his doggy friend.
After our foray to Ieasu’s friend’s place, we just wandered around Kawagoe and took in the sights while trying not to freeze. This required eating a lot of tai-yaki, and other sweet things ending in -yaki (indicating that they’re grilled). Delicious!
 Emaciated bodhisatva |
 Kawagoe's iconic bell tower. Like so many things in Japan, it's burned down numerous times. The most recent incarnation is from 1893. Oh, and there's a rickshaw driver in the foreground. |
 Where the cars are small and the cones are above average. |
 Temples a-poppin! |
 I love you, Doraemon! And I love dora-yaki! |
 ... and Colin's nice, too. Almost as cute as my robot-cat friend. |
 Now don't get all excited. It's just a used computer hardware store. ("Off" as in "price-off") |
