The Perfect Sunday Outing in Tokyo: Meiji Shrine and A to Z Cafe

 Entering the shrine.

Last week, my dear friend Emily came from the States for a visit. On her first day here, we headed down to the Harajuku-Omotesando area of Tokyo for what may be my perfect Tokyo outing: the Meiji Shrine and A to Z Cafe. We exited Harajuku Station with all the cool kids and hit up the shrine first- perfectly beautiful, verdant, and calm, despite the throngs of Sunday tourists. 

Shrine gate.

The Meiji Shrine is where Emperor Meiji (r. 1868-1912) is enshrined. It is also a huge shrine in the middle of Tokyo, includes two museums dedicated to Emperor Meiji, and is a large green space, making it a popular site with a variety of visitors. As it relates to the Imperial, and is a lovely natural escape from the concrete expanses of Tokyo, it is one of my favorite spots in the city.

 A small waterfall along the path.

 Pals.

 Sake barrels as donated by breweries.

 Little dude exhibiting proper ritual behavior at the shrine.

 Little dude goofing around (e.g., not exhibiting proper ritual behavior).

 The main area of the shrine.

 We saw a wedding!

 Shrine doors.

 On our way out.

After a bit of walking through Harajuku, and a quick lunch stop, we headed over to the Omotesando area, one subway stop away. If it had not been raining, and us not in the company of a tired-of-walking kiddo, the stretch between the shrine and Omotesando is a nice 15-20 minute stroll along streets filled with beautiful high end retail- in some ways a museum of contemporary material culture combined with the adjacent Harajuku fashion (read: youthful hip). Ultimately, our destination in Omotesando was the A to Z Cafe, which is a project of the artist Yoshitomo Nara.

 Seated.

 Sparkling wine and pumpkin coconut cake. Dreamy.

 Artist kid in a cafe created by an artist who addresses kids. Woah.

Yoshitomo Nara, long a favorite of mine, creates work that has a certain child-like quality to it. While many of his artworks are somewhat disturbing, others focus on the emotions of childhood, and the childhood experience. So, it was completely appropriate that little dude went straight for his blank-page book with his crayons. 

 

Lighting by the cafe entrance.

Preschool Matsuri 保育園祭り

 Signage at the school.

Today was matsturi, or festival day, at little man's preschool. The kids brought their parents along for the day, and we all participated in a traditional matsuri, which was great fun. The kids all dressed in happi, a type of festival jacket, and tied tenugui, a long narrow cotton cloth, around their heads.

 Teachers helping get costumed.

The festival included a variety of vendors in the school yard and interior, including snacks and sweets, small toys, grilled meat, sushi, juice, all the expected things. And alcohol. Open container is perfectly legal here in Japan, and so seeing beer and sake at a regular matsuri, usually held at a shrine or public park, is totally normal, but at a public preschool at noon on a Thursday I was a bit surprised. It obviously didn't phase anyone else though, and the stall seemingly did quite a good business. It was also great fun to sit around and drink a few beers with the other class moms while the kids ran around in the afternoon. 

 WUT?!?

 Getting ready for the main event.

The primary activity of the matsuri was to parade around the portable (Shinto) shrine that is housed at the school. The principal and some of the smaller kids led with bell-topped staffs, our class came in the middle by pulling the taiko drum float, which we also played, and then the bigger kids carried the shrine at the end. Some of the baby and toddler parents followed with kiddos walking or being carried.

 Here we go!

 Blocking traffic with the taiko float.

 Pulling the float through the streets.

When we arrived at the local Shrine, some of the priests met the kids, and there were a variety of announcements and things said back and forth.

 At the Shrine.

 More parading. I think we went about a mile in total.

 Little dude taking his turn with the taiko, the highlight of his day.

 The portable shrine.

Back at the school, we spent the afternoon hanging out in the schoolyard and interior, eating the bento lunches and snacks that were part of the day, playing games such as bingo, and singing karaoke, which included two times through the Japanese version of Let It Go from Frozen, from which there is no escape. Most of the vendor booths were staffed by retired folks from the neighborhood, many of whom took their turn at karaoke.

 Karaoke. 

One last close up look at the portable shrine. The detail and construction is completely amazing.

Kamakura 鎌倉

My dad came to visit Japan! It's been two weeks now since he and my mom returned to the U.S., but I have a few great travel posts from the fam's visit to share. It was my father's first visit to Japan, so we hit up a bunch of the big sites, and did a bit of traveling. First up, Kamakura.

On our way to Tsurugaoka Hachiman Jingu.

The sakura were just blooming out during our visit, but a few flowers were still around on the street leading up to the Hachiman Jingu. After a quick tempura rice bowl lunch, we headed into the shrine itself. It was great to visit Kamakura after being away for four years; I have many happy memories of visiting the city when we lived in Yokohama, so a return was definitely in order.

The guys near the entrance to the shrine.

 

Candied grapes as sampled by little man.

The shrine is nearly one thousand years old, and until March of 2010 had a huge thousand year old ginkgo tree standing in front of it. We had visited the shrine only a few days before the tree fell, and I can remember the strong winds of the storm rattling our windows in Yokohama all night. I also recall how shocked I was to learn that the tree had fallen, and how glad I was that I had the chance to see it. The stump of the tree is still there, and is visible in the bottom left corner of the photo below. There are shoots growing around it, so life goes on, but it is also a potent reminder of the loss of what once was a truly magnificent tree.

 

Ema at the shrine. People write their wish on the ema and leave it at the shrine.

 

Sakura on the shrine grounds.

 

One of two weddings we saw at the shrine.

When we left the shrine, we headed back to Kamakura Station with a brief stop for ice cream along the way (sweet potato for me, vanilla for the fam). By this point the day had turned from a sunny one to a downpour, but we soldiered on. We took the Enoshima Dentetsu, an adorable little old railway, over to Hasedera to view the sites there, including Hasedera and the Daibutsu (great Buddha) at Kotokuin.

 

Enoshima dentetsu.

 

It stopped raining for long enough to take this photo.

 

Sakura daibutsu money shot!

Dating from the 13th century, the daibutsu is over 35 feet high. Visitors can go inside of it, which little dude thought was amazing. At first he asked where the bones of the Buddha were, and then moved on to comparing it to a hollow chocolate bunny. There truly is nothing quite like the art historical analysis of a four year old.

 

Our next stop was Hasedera, and it really started to rain hard on the short walk between temples. By this time we all had wet socks and were feeling a chill, but powered through for one more temple.

Rain, rain, rain.

 One of little dude's highlights from the day was the cave at Hasedera, or the Benten-kutsu Cave.

 

Entering the cave. 

 

Benzaiten and her biwa, carved into the cave walls.

 

Hundreds of tiny Benzaiten in one of the caves. Visitors can purchase the mini statues to wish for good fortune.

 

Flowers at Hasedera.

 

The Kannon hall. Inside are three 30 foot high sculptures. We spent some time lighting candles inside and "making wishes."

 

Outside the Kannon hall.

 

At this point in our rainy adventure my feet may have been damp and near frozen, but the rain did make everything look quite beautiful!

 

Jizo at Hasedera.

 

More Jizo.

 

Back in the cave for another visit. Seriously, it was the best part. This photo also shows how many of the tiny Benzaiten there were.

 

More flowers!

At this point in the afternoon the rain began to clear up. We made a brief refreshment stop and walked over to the nearby beach to gaze out at Sagami Bay.

 

Sandy.

 

Entranced by the waves.

 

The fam on the beach!

 

 

A parting shot of the Enoshima Dentetsu on our way back home.