nostromo in hello-kitty land, day 11
suprise, suprise - only one shrine today! today was almost
entirely dedicated to the gardens in the center of tokyo.
first park was the "kitanomaru park"[002-062]. inside this park
is the "nippon budokan"[006-030], an arena for all kind of
martial arts tournaments, or concerts. it turned out there was a
"kendo" tournament for kids today. outside the huge arena were
all kind of teams doing warmup or keeping on the practice.
"kendo" seems to be a quite loud sport, as the kids were
screaming very loud all the time. i decided to enter the arena
and watch the tournament for a while. loads of people inside
(mostly parents and relatives of some kid participating in the
tournament, i guess) stared at me. i soon realized i was, most
probably, the only non-asian person in the arena. nonetheless i
enjoyed the tournament.
next stop was the disputed "yasukuni"[035-056] shrine, with all
kind of war relicts like kamikaze-bombers, huge canons and the
like. too much strange stuff offered around the shrine, so i
went on. when entering (or leaving) the shrine one has to pass
by the "tayasumon gate"[031].
i also passed by the "science museum"[062], but did not enter
(too time consuming). instead i headed for the "east gardens of
imperial palace"[063-115]. right next to the east gardens is the
"kokyogaien"[116-134], a huge open area with neatly cut grass,
bushes and trees - very british (at least that was my im-
pression). i also saw the shift changeover there of the imperial
guards[125-131].
then it was time for some sweets again. this time i was more
cautious (due to the "dango" disaster, see picture [072] of day
10) and bought something that looked familiar to me. so i got
this "marugotobanana"[135]. biscuit filled with cream and a real
banana inside. very very tasty! i wish i had some coffee with
it. but instead of coffee i had "godzilla"[137-138] as
companion. then i drove home.
meal for today: a la cart menu[145], since the menu card had
pictures, so i could just point on it, as the staff did not talk
english. the waitress then also gave me a second menu card with
three pictures of unknown meal on it. one looked like salad so i
thought i do the save choice. once the meal was served i ate
some salad and it tasted strange. so i had a closer look at what
i was eating. i took a picute of my "salad"[146]. yes, that's
tiny little fishes in my salad. so here's what i had ordered,
from left to right: "katsudon" ("tonkatsu", that's deep-fried
pork cutlets, in a bowl), "daikon" (the "salad" in the back-
ground), and "miso shiro" (the soup). the meal was very tasty,
except for the "daikon" which was interesting, but not something
i would order again. nonetheless i ate it all. yammi.
random facts about tokyo: women like high-heels, but (almost)
all of them can't walk with them. for most women it does not
look elegant, but rather clumsy. additionally women tend to turn
their toes towards each other, so it looks like they are having
knock-knees, though their feet are just perfectly normal when
they stand still.
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