Tokyo - first impressions

Shibuya at night

prayer requests at the Meji Shrine

at the Meji Shrine

simple lunch of miso soup, kukicha and fantastic grilled mackerel at a little family place in Asakusa

view from our room on the 29th floor of the Park Hotel in Shiodome. Somewhere behind the haze sits Mount Fuji, The red-and-white thing is Tokyo Tower, a replica of the Eiffel Tower and several feet taller than the original.

the high tech toilet in our hotel, complete with heated toilet seat and hydraulic lid

off to the mountains to soak in some hot springs - won't have internet access for a few days. More soon!

Chichibu Ondo

You may not be aware of this but apparently the Japanese are a very merry and festive lot. Researching our trip, we've come across no end of festivals - every city, town and neighborhood seems to have a minimum of three big street festivals a year where everything grinds to a halt and people drop everything to celebrate. Kyoto for instance has the Jidai Mitsuri going on while we're there, which we were very excited about until we found out that you can't get a bed in the city during that week. So unfortunately, we've had to push Kyoto into our second week.

One of the most charming festivals we've come across, and again it's not one we'll see because it happens on August 14, is the Chichibu Ondo Mitsui in Minato Town (not Minato the neighborhood in Tokyo I take it). The entire festival is based around over a thousand people dancing to one very popular folk song all day - and the song is adorable! Couldn't find a video of the dancing, but Ritesh dug up the song itself on you tube - a classic, love it :) !

Chichibu Ondo Festival (Minano Town)
Takes place on August 13 and 14. Dancers parade through the town and dance to the tune of Chichibu-ondo, one of the three best traditional folk songs in Japan. Dancing contest and firework festival are also held on the same day.

"Chichubu Ondo (dance song for Chichibu Ondo Matsuri Festival) is thought to be one of the most famous folk songs in Kanto area. At Nagashi-odori competition, 60 teams of over 1,200 people from various parts of Saitama prefecture participate every year, and you will get to hear voices of participants echoing through out the mountain. The fireworks display also adds the excitement to the festival. Chichibu ondo was started by the local valley people about 200 years ago. At the end of Taisho era, Minano town added lyrics that was collected by local people to the sound and performed Chichibu Hohnen (a year of plenty) dance to the public. The performance was renamed later as Chichibu Ondo Matsuri Festival and became one of the most famous fold songs in the Kanto area, along with Gunma`s Yagibushi and Tochigi`s Nikko Waraku Dance. The festival is held every year on Aug. 14 in Minato town."
Quoted from some tourist sites.

Countdown to Japan - One Week to go!

So a week from today, we'll be landing in Tokyo. We're actually leaving on Friday, but that 16h time difference pushes our arrival into Saturday afternoon local time. We're very excited. We've finally managed to book our hotels for the entire trip this week, now we need to tackle in-country travel and dish out for a Japan Rail pass, which may require a hasty trip to Japantown this weekend, we'll see.

We've been a bit worried about the weather, though. As you can imagine, this is what the weather is like in LA:

And this is what it's been like in Tokyo for some weeks now:

It seems to be getting better gradually now that typhoon season is over, but I'm packing a rain jacket!

Chocolate truffles and rice krispy treats

Home made chocolate truffles, made w/ hazelnut butter, raw cocoa, agave syrup, cocoa nibs and some dates, if I recall. This was a variation on Ani Phyo's chocolate truffles -hers are made with almond butter.

And for those of us who love peanut butter (Suzie, are you reading this?) - some maple-sweetened peanut butter rice krispy treats w/ pistachios, from this fabulous recipe.