We had some baked goods and vanilla lattes at the cafe and bakery attached to the hotel. We did that yesterday too and forgot to mention it. Really good, I'm sure we'll do it tomorrow too. Afterwards we left on the bus and a couple trains to Gotokuji, a temple with a lot of cat statues.
The temple was built in 1480. In the 1600s the land became the domain of the Hikone clan. One day a Hikone lord was riding by when a temple cat beckoned him inside, where he avoided a thunderstorm and had a nice chat with the temple master. He paid to have the temple rebuilt and a shrine to the cat that brought about the fortunate meeting. So the cats are offerings for good encounters or chance meetings (if you live a good life)
Very pleasant to get away from the central city, it wasn't very crowded and had a mix of tourists and older locals.
On our way back Sarah spotted a sign for a shrine with a sumo rikishi on the sign. Setagaya Hachiman shrine which dates back to 1091 and was once one of 3 major sumo wrestling events later in the Edo period. We got some fortunes, accidently did it twice but they were all good. Then we headed back to trains and the city.
The rest of our evening we spent in Shibuya which is a neat albeit touristy area of Tokyo. We picked a place semi randomly. There was a ton of food on the street and we opted for a Yakiniku place (grill your own food). Honestly nice to just sit down for a while. Beer and meat cannot be beat, but cheap Wagyu beef makes it quite the treat. That's both cheesy and a haiku. It was very good, 5600yen for both our meals and drinks.
After that we headed to Mandarake, which is a chain, but this particular location is sort of cave like. You go down 2 flights of stairs to a basement space that is filled with rows and rows of bookshelves, narrowly spaced. Along the outer sides are glass cases with vintage toys like Godzilla and Ultraman action figures from the 60s. Trading cards, dvds, dolls,all kinds of stuff. Luckily elevators to get out.
Sarah had her first Don Kihote experience. That is the correct spelling for the Japanes chain where it's filled 8 stories high of whatever you could want. Self care products, snacks/treats, liquor, chotchkies. We were there for the bathroom but then got tucked in. Also, amazingly they had trash cans you could use. This is seriously a rarity in Japan. Public trashcans aren't really a thing.
Next up we stopped by Lost Bar. A Japan youtuber Chris Broad started this bar with his fellow Japan youtuber wife last year (or vice versa). The door is a functional vending machine you have to slide to get into it. So unless you know about it, you wouldn't know it's there. Honestly it was a great getaway which I think was the intent. Most customers were speaking English, 80s rock and pop playing, and had uncramped sitting space. I had a Sake flight and Sarah had an Aquamarine, a vodka and curacao drink. Our server was from Michigan, had taught English for 5 years in Gunma prefecture, tried Japanese corporate life briefly and said it was as horrible as everyone says, and then went to Tokyo to find work and eventually there. Very neat
Last stop was at a Lawson for another convenience store dinner but as we found out they were doing a limited time partnership with Dragon Quest (video game series) and had a bunch of knick knacks related to it only sold there. We put 200yen into a machine that squashes a penny basically. Sarah spotted they had a lotto game. You buy like a pulltab for 750 yen and based on the number you get a prize. We did 2 and Sarah got one of the higher prizes, a metal cup (based on metal slime characters) and I got a hard plastic poster. Pretty fun.
Otherwise we bussed back, packed out stuff as we leave Tokyo tomorrow and getting some shuttle.
I'm tired and I'm not gonna rotate these images or order them all correctly. I did edit the orientation now (next day)
Is that "soda" can Sarah holding, by chance, Japan's new mayo drink?
ReplyDeleteIt is in fact a newish mayo flavored beverage. We didn't buy it but we've seen people drink it on the internet. Apparently it tastes like worse spoiled milk.
Delete