Photo of the Day: Baby Carriage Parking

This photo (using my crappy cell phone camera) was taken inside our local cinema with all the baby carriages neatly “parked” – people are so organized here in Japan.

Hinamatsuri Exhibit

There is a Hinamatsuri (Doll’s Festival) exhibit on the 9th floor of the Tokyu department store in Shibuya, Tokyo.

There were a number of sets on display, ranging from 100,000 yen to 200,000 yen ($1,000-$2,000) and a few as high as 450,000 yen ($4,500).  Below are some of the pictures that I took.

A few non-traditional sets were also on display.

Chocolate Beer

I saw this unusual beer at my local grocery store – its chocolate beer!  Let’s give it try.

Chocolat Brewery is made by Sapporo and is a dark beer.  It’s not bad, there is a hint of chocolate.  But I think I’ll still to Kirin Stout as my favorite Japanese dark beer.

Tokyo City View

The Mori Tower located in Roppongi Hills is the 5th tallest building in Tokyo, standing at 238 meters.

The roof is open to the public called the Sky Deck and has a helipad.

On the 52th floor, the building’s observation deck is called Tokyo City View and offered great views of the Tokyo Tower. Admission is 1,500 yen ($15).

Finally, a great sunset with a silhouette of Mount Fuji.

Daruma

The Daruma doll (also known as a Dharma doll), is a hollow, round, Japanese doll modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism.  You can find Daruma dolls being sold especially during the first festivals of the year.

 

Daruma dolls are typically red in color (as pictured above) to give good luck, but as you can see from this YouTube video from thatjapanesegirl, they also come in other colors.

Taiyaki

In my last blog post describing a visit to Nezu, we found a store with a long line-up during our walk from Nezu Shrine to the subway.

So we lined up (like lemmings) and bought a couple of Taiyaki, a Japanese fish-shaped cake.

Taiyaki, which means baked sea bream, is made using regular pancake or waffle batter. The most common filling is red bean paste that is made from sweetened azuki beans.

Another Taiyaki shop near our neighborhood.

Nezu Shrine

Last weekend, we visited a quiet area east of Tokyo called Nezu, which is part of Yanesen, an amalgam of the temple districts of Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi.

First, we had lunch at a popular restaurant named Kamachiku, a family run noodle shop set in a century old granary with a modern addition designed by architect Kengo Kuma. 

Of course, we ordered their speciality – handmade udon. It was oishii (delicious).

It overlooks a soothing Japanese garden.

After lunch, a short walk brought us to the nearby Nezu Shrine, a 300 year old Shinto shrine built using the Gongen-style architecture.

Apparently, all the original buildings have survived fires, wars and earthquakes, and thus are designated as nationally important cultural properties.

There were orange torii gates as well.

Read TokyoFive’s blog entry titled Nezu Shrine Festival last September.

Tourism Japan

A recent article from Japan Today reported a 18.7% decrease in the number of foreign tourists who visited Japan in 2009, to about 6.8 million.  Reasons cited where the strong yen, global economic recession and the H1N1 influenza virus.  The largest number of foreign tourists to the country came from South Korea, Taiwan and China, which was the only country with an increase of visitors.

Yokoso! Japan has started a campaign to attract more visitors to Japan in 2010 (the government has set a target of 10 million) called Live Japan!

You can visit my Live Japan guidebook where I feature articles about Tokyo festivals and events taken from this blog.

First Kitchen

First Kitchen is a fast-food restaurant in Japan, its first shop in Tokyo opened in September 1979.  It is famous for its flavored french fries, called Flavor Potato.  I think we have only eaten there once so far.

 

Japanese people often shorten the name to Fakkin.  You can view this funny video on YouTube from thatjapanesegirl.

Photo of the Day: Construction Worker

This photo was taken near a street being repaired in Roppongi in Tokyo last year.  The right arm of this mannequin-like worker actually moves up and down.  Soon, we will all be replaced by robot workers!

Did you spot the actual human worker sitting on the sidewalk at the bottom left hand corner of the picture?