Let's make happy
Japan Things
1001 Buddhas and a Milkshake
Apr 15th
Yesterday we went to Sanjusangendo, which is my favorite temple in Kyoto. Its main feature is a massively long hall that houses 1001 intricately carved statues of Kannon (not technically Buddha, but close enough for most non-Buddhists). This is another hugely popular temple, and it’s usually packed with crowds of visiting schoolchildren, but the crowds were amazingly quiet yesterday so it didn’t seem so packed.
Photos are forbidden in the hall, and I’d rather not use any blurry ones posted online by rule-breaking visitors, so I’ll just say that the sight is breathtaking and not to be missed.
And now for a milkshake.
You may have heard that there are vending machines on every street corner in Japan. That’s more or less true, but contrary to popular belief, they do not all contain used girls’ underwear. (I’ve never seen one of these mythical vending machines, though I have spotted one for eggs and one for porn, but these were rare sightings.)
The cool thing about vending machines in Japan is that while most of them carry the same 10 or so drinks from Coca-Cola and Suntory (sodas, coffee drinks, tea and the like), every once in a while you’ll come across a drink you’ve never seen before, and you might never see again. Such was the case with Milk Shake.
Milk Shake is not an authentic milkshake, but it is milky and very sweet. Kind of like watered-down melted ice cream, with a little bit of an artificial aftertaste. I liked it, but we probably shouldn’t have bought two before tasting it, because one was enough for everyone to share, and our ryokan room doesn’t have a fridge in which we could keep the other one warm. Warm watery ice cream drink with a bit of an artificial aftertaste, anyone? No?
Off to Kyoto
Apr 14th
I had underestimated the traditional ryokan we’re staying at in Kyoto. Free wireless internet for all!
To get here, we took the bullet train, the highlight of which was bento boxes. Here is Bonney with hers before digging in. (I haven’t gotten her permission to use this photo, but I’m going to anyway because I think it’s great.)
We could identify about half of its contents before she ate it, and two-thirds after. (Mine was a vegetable bento, and much less mysterious.)
Once in Kyoto, we reached our ryokan by cab. The driver turned out to be a plush toy lover!
He was an older man, and hard of hearing, and that made the plush fandom even more endearing.
The place we’re staying is within walking distance of Maruyama Koen and Kiyomizudera, so that was our outing for the day. Both are extremely popular destinations, and the crowds were pretty incredible. But we had much fun browsing the souvenir shops that lined the steep streets heading up to the temple. For myself, I picked up the most adorable mousey!
It’s made from kimono fabric, though I can’t recall what this type of craft is called. (Any help?) There were lots of reeeally cute toys like these, and it was hard to resist buying more. There’s a whole museum/shop devoted to them somewhere in the city that I stumbled upon once. I’m not having any luck locating it again, so I guess I’ll just hope that I’ll have the good fortune to find it by chance.
Maybe a pic or two of the hundreds of temples and shrines in this city will make it into my post tomorrow.
Kewpies and More in Shibuya
Apr 13th
Hellooo from Japan!
Today was our first full day here. We had planned to do both Shibuya and Harajuku, but the former proved to be more than enough for us.
We spent a good part of the day in Loft, browsing the latest in stylishly cute housewares and zakka. Then we ogled delicious food at Shibuya station.
Kewpie dolls continue to be all the rage in the cute department. Here they are advertising a new TV show:
I love love love this ad! Each Kewpie is dressed up as a food or animal or other thing of Japan. Wouldn’t it have been fun to make all these outfits? They’re also selling cell phone straps of Kewpies incognito as various foods and animals—I picked up a Kewpie beer and a Kewpie mushroom today. So cute!
Here’s Kewpie dressed up as the horse character Rody.
If you look closely and can read Japanese, you’ll see that this particular crane game has a sign proclaiming it the “second most popular!” What a crowning achievement.
The “Kapibara” character is still going strong too, with a few new varieties added to the mix. Do these guys remind you of someone?
Perhaps a certain toupee-wearing mouse?
Now for edibles. We came across a counter with the most gorgeous, exotic varieties of honey.
Yuzu, lemon, thyme.. those are the ones I can remember, but there were dozens of flavors. I think we could have gotten samples, but we were too busy buying them up to think to ask.
Finally, yummy bright green sweets.
Made of sticky rice, sweet bean paste, and unidentifiable squiggly green thingies.
We’re heading off to a few days in Kyoto tomorrow, where I’m not sure if we’ll have internet access or not. I’ll be back when we do!
