stuff i bought in japan. some of the items are presents. here is, what it is in detail: [01] "domo-kun", from the shop at the "NHK broadcasting center". [02] "jiji", the little black cat from "kiki's delivery service", bought at the "studio ghibli museum". [03] "totoro", from the movie "my neighbor totoro", bought at the "studio ghibli museum". [04] washrag bought in the "ikebukuro" ward in the "tokyu hands" mall, in the "nekobukuro" shop on the 9th floor. [05] two "lucky cats" bought in a shop at the airport. [06] "lucky cat" i bought at the "imado jinja shrine". [07] "ta-chan", another character from the NHK studios, bought at the NHK shop. [08] "moomin" pin, bought at the "moomin bakery & cafe" at the "tokyo dome" site. [09] another "jiji" merchandising item, bought at the "studio ghibli" museum. [10] cat "ema", bought at the cat shrine shop. [11] "doraemon" fan included with a manga by "corocoro" tv. [12] "chi's sweet home" manga, part 4, including a cloth bag. [13] "chi's sweet home" sticker book, including 671 stickers of "chi". [14] cat food i bought in the "cats living" shop in the "odaiba" ward. [15] a book full of dog pictures with a fisheye lens. [16] another "ghibli" merchandising item. a "jiji" mug, bought at a "ghibli" shop at the "shidome sio site". [17] a mug from a "lawson" store. [18] "welcome cat" bought at "electric street" in "akihabara" while searching for a cosplay restaurant with Gullevek. [19] "nekomimi-gashapon", number one. [20] "nekomimi-gashapon", number two. [21] "chibi totoro" plush toy, bought at the "ghibli" store at "shidome sio site". [22] unknown toy i found at the "shidome sio site". random facts for my tokyo trip: 2173 pics taken.

last day for me in the land of hello kitty, shrines, temples and nekomimi-maids. i wish i would have booked three weeks. but my feet hurt, i have blisters on my toes and heels, my left lower leg hurts with every step i do, my shoes are pretty worn out, and i'm just very tired, and every muscle of my body is tensed up. so two weeks of sightseeing are a bit exhausting. nonetheless it was worth it. i forgot to add some comments on yesterday's bLog-entry. what i had for lunch (day 12, picture [99]) yesterday was eight pieces of sushi, and four pieces of maki for 530YEN (that's about 3.15EUR), some "hello kitty" cookies for 200YEN (that's about 1.20EUR), chocolate for 89YEN (52cent), and a can of "kirin chuhi" for 201YEN, which is a mix of "syochu" (alcohol distilled from either sweet potato, or rice) and lemon. today's program started with a visit to the "tsukiji wholesale market"[001-034] where one can find vegetables and all kind of sea-food and fish. in fact this is the biggest fish market in the world (at least my guide says so). in the hall where they sell fish there were several animals i had never seen before in my life. a walk just from one side to the other side of the hall took me about 15mins. so the area is really really huge. inside they chop off heads and tails, disembowel fish, and cut it into handy pieces, which they sell afterwards. unfortunately i only like sweet things in the morning, so i did not buy or eat any fresh fish. the area is pretty busy and quite dangerous for incautious tourists, since there are driving all kind of vehicles to transport the fish from one place to the other. so there was a constant movement throughout the entire inside and outside of the halls. i went on and was searching for the nearest underground station, when i accidentally found the "hama-rikyu"[036-083] gardens. notice the ticket-number as shown in picture[037]. "hama-rikyu" was a very beautiful garden with loads of ponds, bridges, trees and a tea house[061-073] where they perform a tea ceremony. i went inside the house and got cold tea (with foam on top of it) and a little cake. additionally i was handed out a paper that describes in detail all the steps to be taken to perform the ceremony correctly (in english!). i really tried my best, and i hope i did perform not that bad. the tea was excellent, and has a unique taste - definitely recommendable. on my way to my next stop i passed by several skyscrapers[086-098], and i was fascinated by the reflections and geometries, so there are a few experimental pictures included. again another attraction i found by accident kept me from getting on the underground train. this time there was some activity in the "shidome sio site"[099-119]. i especially liked the "monkey-boy"[105-106] since he really enjoyed what he was doing. in a toy shop i found another "studio ghibli"[112-118] corner as almost every toy store has. japanese love "hello kitty" and "studio ghibli" stuff. and so do i, so i went in and took some pictures. i bought some white chocolate again. this time a "dars" bar for 98YEN (about 60cent). and then, finally, i made it to my planned destination, namely the "tokyo tower"[125-155], a copy of the eiffel tower, but 33 metres taller. i enjoyed the view over tokyo and another "hello kitty" souvenir shop inside the tower. then i met with Kaze_ again, since i asked him if he wants to join me to the shrine i did not find yesterday. he said yes, so we went there together. so i finally made it to the "imado jinja shrine"[166-179], dedicated to the "maneki neko", better known as the "lucky cat", "welcoming cat", or "fortune cat". Kaze_ and i love cats, and there were many cats (though not living ones). i bought two cat-emas[178] wrote my wishes on one of them, and hung it next to the other emas. the other one i took with me as a souvenir. i'm glad i went there, and this time to the right shrine. afterwards Kaze_ and i had some japanese sweets, called "anmitsu"[182], that's fruits, small cubes of agar jelly, "azuki beans" (the black things), "azuki beans paste" (the brown thing), and black syrup. and came by the three metres high lantern again, as seen in picture[042] on day 08. this time i took a photo from the bottom of the lantern[181]. then we went to a restaurant where i got sake[183] and "shogayaki"[181] ("shoga" is ginger, "yaki" is to fry) with pork. as usual very delicious! i really will miss the variety of japanese food. later we went to a bookstore where i bought some cat manga. random fact about tokyo: during my tokyo trip there was not a single accident on the street. i think this is due to the fact that the people are simply polite and friendly in every aspect of their live, and this also includes road traffic. i already mentioned in an earlier facts-section that pedestrians and cyclists share the pavement but there was not a single scolding. thanks for reading my bLog. tokyo, i will miss you...

today was bit frustrating. for the first time during my visit in japan i was searching for a specific shrine. this shrine is not listed in my pocket-guide, so i was searching for it on the internet. since tokyo is the town "where the streets have no name" (and this is meant literally!), i wrote down the "address" i got from an internet-site, which is "1-5-22, imado, taito-ku, tokyo, 111-0024". this means i've been searching for "imado" in the "taito" ward, area 1 in this ward, block 5, house number 22. i thought that would be easy, but instead i got this: "A" is where i have been to, "B" is where i wanted to go. so i've wasted almost three hours to get there, find the wrong place, and return to my other stops i've planned to visit today. i missed the shrine though i've asked all together three people that all gave me the same directions. tokyo is a bit strange from time to time. but since i found out where to go now ("B"!), i will waste another three hours tomorrow on my last day here in tokyo to get there - i _really_ want to go there! but (hopefully) more about this location tomorrow. but on my way to the wrong spot i took at least some pictures[03-07]. this is by the way the same area that was partially closed due to the sumida river fireworks (see day 08, picture [35]). my next stop was the "ginza"[08-30] ward, the noble part of tokyo. not really my style, but a nice impression though. according to my pocket-guide there should be a huge "sanrio" shop (you know, the "hello kitty"-stuff producers), but i did not find it. so i think my guide is a little bit out-dated, or i failed again at finding specific stuff here in tokyo. again pretty frustrating. as there were no other shops that interested me, i took the next train to "shibuya"[31-97]. my pocket-guide suggest to start the "shibuya" tour at the "hachiko"[34-35] monument. "hachiko" was the dog of a professor at the tokyo university who was waiting for his master's return at the station every day. when the professor died, the dog still came to the station until he also died - which was seven years later. that's the story according to my guide... next sight is the busiest pedestrian crossing[37-43] in the world (again, according to my guide). notice that all traffic lights for pedestrians switch to green at the same time. then i followed the crowd to various shopping streets in the area, with more or less well known shop-brands[45-54]. i soon got near the "NHK broadcasting center"[56-73], a television company for tokyo, well known for "domo-kun"[73]. once more everything was in japanese, except the "no photographs", and "exit" signs. nonetheless, it was a nice visit to "NHK studiopark". aimed at children, it described the way a tv show is produced. but that's ok for me, i had fun too. nice feature: they had a 3D-television that really worked without extra glasses or other additional devices - quite impressive. then, by accident, i found a shrine[84-85]. but not what i got used to find when visiting a shrine, because this one was a "modern" one. totally surrounded by concrete, steel, and glass, this was the strangest shrine i've seen so far. random fact about tokyo: for several days i'm running around with stamps in my bag, but only found two shops where postcards are sold. since the postcards i've seen so far were very boring, i always wanted to wait to find some better ones. well, tomorrow is my last day, and i'm having troubles to find some postcards at all.

surprise, surprise - 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 warm up 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 relics 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 impression). 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 picture 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 background), 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.

day 10 was, once more a rather relaxing day. first of all the daily doses of shrining! starting with "yushima seido"[002-022], and the next one just a few metres further down the street "yushima tenjin"[025-044] shrine. once more a picture of the "kuro neko"[045-046] ("black cat") parcel service. i love that logo - meow. next stop was a visit to the "kyu iwasaki tei" garden. a garden that belonged to the "mitsubishi" founder "iwasaki yataro". in the garden is his house that has a western-style part and a traditional part. at the entrance i had to put off my shoes, so i was walking barefoot on red carpet, that was laid out all over the corridors. inside no photography. on my way to my next stop i saw a man standing near a bush, staring at it. so i stared there too, and saw a chirping little bird[056-058]. it seemed it has fallen out of the nest. another person came there to look at the bird, and then the three of us started to search for the nest in the nearby trees. but no luck. so the man took the bird, and said (with typical japanese accent) "police station", and nodded heavily. i thought... hm... ok, why not. policemen seem to be contacted for really everything here in tokyo, it seems. so the man walked away with the little bird in his hands. the thought of him at the police-station with the little bird actually made me smile. after another few minutes walking i came to the "tokyo todai"[064-080] ("tokyo university") that is the elitist university in tokyo, but the buildings are rundown and shabby. at a convenience store i bought some japanese sweets[071-072] and an unknown drink (printing on the tetrapack was all just japanese). the drink was delicious, i think it was some kind of yoghurt-drink or so, but the sweets were way too sweet. i ate one skewer, and i started to feel sick - too bad. i decided not to eat the rest. i felt sick for several hours then. but, at least i tried something new on the food sector... "kanda myojin"[091-105] shrine was next to get my full daily doses. it was on my way to "tokyo dome"[110-149], another fun fair in tokyo. attraction here is definitely the roller coaster that is built around a building here. i also noticed a "moomin bakery & cafe"[120-128], and went inside for a coffee. i found loads of moomin stuff and big stuffed moomin creatures sitting right at some tables. like all merchandising stuff (like studio ghibli or moomins) everything was pretty expensive (compared to similar products). yet i liked it and enjoyed my coffee, surrounded by moomin creatures. then i went home to take a shower and get to "akihabara" again to meet Gullevek, who lives in tokyo for over three years now. i asked him if he would like to join me going to a cosplay restaurant, preferably a maid-restaurant where the girls wear cat-ears (yeah, right, again "nekomimi"-stuff - i like it!). several girls offered flyers for various cosplay restaurants on the street, but the services changed from cooking to massages (facial, foot, back, or hand). one offered massage and chocolate. hm... ok, why not. but this is not what i wanted. we finally got a flyer from a cute maid with cat-ears (unfortunately she didn't like to be photographed). it turned out to be the cafe i already took a photo of its flyer on day 04, picture [94], which i thought was an advertisement for another cat-cafe. unfortunately inside the cafe no photos were allowed. not even pictures of the meal i had. i had rice with beef and japanese curry sauce. very spicy, very delicious. Gullevek ate some sort of pancake with rice filling. it is served with ketchup, and the nekomimi-maid came with the plate, drew a cute cat face on it, and finally placed the plate on the table. but again, no pictures allowed. i think if i would live in tokyo i would visit this kind of restaurant pretty often. very very cute nekomimi-maids are something i will definitely be missing at home. poor, poor me. random facts about tokyo (as told by Gullevek): i already had noticed there are no dustbins around throughout tokyo. he told me there once were dustbins, but due to terrorist threats they were all removed from one day to another. instead there were signs saying one should take their garbage to their home. due to stalking incidences many cosplay cafes forbid taking pictures of the waitresses.

day 09 is a sunday, and sunday means "yoyogi park"-time! or, in other words: seeing japanese youth culture live-performing all around in the park. to me, this means a relaxing sunday with a rather high WTF???-factor, but not much to do than just staring, listening, taking pictures, and strolling around. but to get to "yoyogi park" i had to walk down "takeshita dori"[001-011], a street full of fashion shops for more alternative styles like punks, gothic lolitas, hip hop dancers, etc. (btw, pictures from day 04, [001-042] were taken right next to today's locations). so the first ones i met outside the park were all kind of gothic-lolitas, and other people in interesting outfits[013-050]. i think there's not much to say about it, just get an impression by the pictures yourself. in the park a gaggle of rockabillies[051-076] was dancing and having fun (with typical haircuts). look at the timestamps of the pictures, as later there will be some more pictures of the group. they were dancing all the time! also notice the shoes[058]. when i came by later there were all kind of parts from their shoes laying around. heavy dancing! next i saw several bands[078-105] with all kind of music genres and with more, or less skills. a band i really liked was "vale"[087-090]. so i sat down and listened to their music for quite a while. it turned out they only had three songs to perform, but they did that in an excellent way. they gave away free CDs, so i took one and donated some money. besides loud music there were also all kind of "performances", like this guy with nunchakus[107-109], who was really impressing. unfortunately only a few pictures turned out to be in focus. a group of japanese hippies[110] (though their clothes were really moderated) was also there, like other groups, of which i could not find out what they were actually doing. maybe some tailoring, or acting, or both? who knows. then some cosplay (short for "costume play") and other fancy dressing[121-131] again, with a real cute maid[118-119]. kawaiiii! some skateboarders[120] were there too and a police officer stopping at them to talk with them. but it looked more like a friendly talk and no giving orders or the like. the police officer drove on and the skaters went on doing their tricks. back to the rockabillies again[132-133] - same people, doing the same dance for (at least) two hours. and finally another band[134-140] with cute costumes and loads of fans as it seemed. afterwards i decided to listen to some more "vale"[141-142] music and returned to their location. in the meantime it started to rain (though it was more a light drizzle), but this didn't cool down the air a bit. on the contrary, the sultriness grew. by 17:00 (and due to the ongoing rain) most of the performers had already packed and left their open-air stages. so i also headed for the train station, and found a beautiful japanese garden[150-156] on the way. since i got a little hungry i tried this "soyjoy"[158] bar, but the soya joy was non existent actually. it tasted ok, but the consistency of the bar was a bit strange. when i got off the train there was a beautiful sunset with an dark red sky. unfortunately i didn't make it to the tenth floor of my hotel in time, so there are no good pictures of the sunset. too bad. since today i wanted to have maki[165], there's no new food report. maybe i'll try something yet unknown tomorrow, let's see. ah, and today i bought another "nekomimi"-girl "gashapon" - this is another cat girl (with cat-ears = "nekomimi") in a capsule ("gashapon"). this time i got the black one - yippieh! (see picture[097], on day 04). i also discovered that power napping is a great thing, since it can take quite a long time to get to some station and that's a good opportunity while sitting on the train to relax a bit. random facts about tokyo: most taxis have doors that open automatically, so the passenger can get on more easily. loads of people have some kind of washrag they use to wipe away the sweat. i bought one too in the cat store i visited on day 07 (see picture [006]), of course with a cat on it - pretty convenient, as it's hot all the time and there are lavatories all over tokyo where one can wash it from time to time.

today (day 08), was the big day. today was the "sumida river festival" with a huge firework, starting from 19:10 to 20:30. it is in the "asakusa" ward, which i have chosen for this day's trip. it turned out this was a mistake (sort of), since this festival seems to be a rather huge one, so many streets were closed, many sights were unreachable (or at least no police wo/man could tell me how to get there. but this was also due to the lack of english knowledge). on my way there of course i found some shrines and temples like "edoroku jizo"[001-002], or "myoki-zuka mound"[003-006]. notice the stone ball[006] in the mouth. i could move it, but not remove it, so it must have been created while engraving the rest of the head. pretty cool. after a long walk i arrived at the "sumida" river site. what i found was really huge masses of people and loads of police wo/men. most of the people camped at various sites to get a good view on the firework. but they started to sit there already at 12:00 - the hottest time of the day. the sports center's grounds were covered with plastic tarps[007]. this applied to several streets that got covered this way too. some more shrines i found were "imado"[008-015] shrine and "matsuchiyama shoden"[016-033] with a wonderful garden included. and then i arrived at "nakamise dori"[036-039], a street with all kind of souvenir shops. it ends at the very large area with the "dembo"[040-049,065-080] temple, and the nearby "asakusa-jinja"[075-076] shrine which is located right in the same place as the "dembo" temple. besides the "nakamise dori" there are other streets with the same kind of shops[055-064,107-113]. and there was a performance by (i think it was) a radio station with these cool actors and one actress[081-106]. was fun to watch, but i have no idea what the story was all about. on my way back i came by the same place again right in front of the "kaminari-mon torii"[042,053,114], a gate with a red lantern that is weights 100kg and is three metres high. notice how much more people gathered there. this got even worse when i went to the tokyo metro station to drive to the hotel. i had to fight my way through masses of people all heading for the main exit, while only a view (like me) wanted to get on the train. once all people got off the train, it was empty. totally empty. at the hotel i ate my bento-box[115] that i bought at a "bento to go" restaurant right across the street. i chose the salmon bento box. it was delicious though i could not identify the stuff in the lower middle part of the box. the salmon looks less delicate on this picture than it did in reality. another piece of yammiyammi! no dessert today, but i had a "kakigori"[051], that's crushed ice with syrup at the "dembo" temple. i think mine was "hawaii" - at least i think that's what the lady told me when i asked her about the blue liquid's flavour. it was very sweet, very cold, and very delicious. random facts about tokyo: pedestrians and cyclists share the pavement if the street is very busy. though the pavements are rather narrow, both groups get along very well. no insults so far or rude behaviour. i found my hotel on maps.google.com. there's "hello kitty" everywhere - really everywhere[011,014]. young people (of both sexes) like to wear traditional clothes. japanese have strange toilets[111].

half of my stay here is done, and still so much to see. i hope i see at least the most important things i planned for this trip. for today, day 07, there's not much written info here on the bLog, but loads of pictures, since i wanted to have a relaxing day in shops (they all have air-condition). thus i went to "ikebukuro", as my guide says there are loads of shops and malls. after getting of the JR train at "ikebukuro" station i was walking around in malls for about twenty minutes when i entered another "tokyu hands" store. on the ninth floor i found another "cats alive" store and a huge cat store called "nekobukuro"[004-007], having all kind of cat-related stuff. they even had a living cat in the shop[007]. in the next street i saw this "cat cafe"[008] sign. a coffee is always a good idea, so i thought ok, let's find out what a "cat cafe"[009-045] is. it turned out to be the same as comic/manga cafes in tokyo (though i still have to visit one). you pay for each hour you stay at the bar/cafe and then can drink as much as you want and enjoy the cats/comics/etc. it's similar to the "cats alive" store where one would pay for playing with cats. 1000YEN for the first hour (that's about 6EUR). at first i thought one hour is way too long and i will be leaving after 30mins again, but this is somehow addictive. drinking coffee, surrounded by cute cats and girls in school uniforms having fun with the kitten. really cute - all of them. though every additional hour would have been cheaper (300YEN, that's about 1.75EUR) i left the cafe. a few streets away i found a huge manga store[052] (ten floors full of manga stuff) together with several other shops[053-054] in a row. next stop was "sunshine city" with the "sunshine international aquarium"[066-201], which is located on the tenth floor in the "world import mart" building and also includes a little zoo with all kind of small animals. "sunshine city" itself is made up of several skyscrapers. another one of them is the "sunshine60" building, which houses the "sunshine observatory"[203-216], including a "naruto" exhibition (there's a new film that will be in cinemas on second of august, therefore one can see "naruto" stuff everywhere). on my way home[217-220] it seems i hit rush-hour at the train station[221]. so i bought something to drink, waited until the rush was over, and drove home. today's dinner: a collection of various fried things in a box[222]. from left to right, top to bottom: fried fish (tasted exactly like "kaept'n iglos fischstaebchen", rice, then something undefinable, but tasted like strudel. the risolle in front tasted like a spicy vegetable burger, and finally a meatball in the lower right corner. this all was served warm (at the hotel there's a public microwave oven). it tasted very very good. on the left a dessert i tried out. i think it was soya pudding with vanilla flavour and whipped cream and hazelnut cream topping. also very yummi! so all in all really an relaxing day with loads of cats. random facts about tokyo: today i saw drunk japanese people for the first time here in tokyo. as it's friday i guess many start to prepare for weekend. there's a towing service for bikes that are parked where they shouldn't be. japanese love cute characters - they are everywhere and almost used by every company, no matter what they sell or produce (this includes parcel-, telephon-, tv-, and transportation-companies and loads of other companies i do not know what their business is (since i can't read the texts next to the logos).

i found out what i had eaten the day before (see here): the sweets in the background is "karinto", the stuff in the bento box is "maki", "onigiri", and the thing at the back on the right is "inarizushi" ("inari", the fox-god likes "inarizushi"!), sushi with "ikura-don", and "tamagoyaki". day 06 started at "ueno park"[092-178], a huge park with all kind of statues, temples, shrines, attractions, etc. first thing i visited was the "shinubazu pond"[006-010], a pond full of lotus flowers. in other parts of the pond there are loads of fish, turtles, ducks, and one can hire a boat. in the middle of the pond is the "benten island"[016-023] with the "bentendo temple" on it. near the pond there's also the very small "kyu-iawasaki temple" [013-014]. but i headed back to ueno park again to find the "saigo takamori" statue[027]. saigo takamori was a very famous samurai. next to it are the "shogi-tai tombstones"[029], but i forgot why they were put there. another sight nearby is the "kiyomizu-kannon temple"[030-033], and the "toki-wasureji-no-to" statue[034], which is dedicated to thousands of citizens of tokyo that died in an fire bombing in world war II. then i got lost in at least four or five temples/shrines[036-053] that are very close to each other. therefore i can not name them. to get rid of the temporary temple/shrine overload i decided to visit the "ueno zoo"[054-144], which has about 2800 specimen on an area of 14 hectares. besides all the cute animals, there's also a five storied pagoda[136-138]. then i met this little cutie[148-150] that was heading straight towards me once she heard the sound of my camera. the cat then allowed me to pet it for quite a while, but since it was very hot, i wanted to go on. i hope the cat enjoyed it as much as i did - meow. so, it was time for another shrine again! this time the "kaneiji temple"[151-173] with a beautiful cemetery included. bad thing: i really enjoy visiting the temples/shrines as i really like all this traditional japanese stuff. and the most beautiful buildings in tokyo are shrines and temples. so be warned there will be tons of other pictures of shrines during the days left. random facts for tokyo: sorry, none for today. what i've eaten today[179]: "onigiri" (the triangle wrapped in edible seaweed at the back with a "tarako" filling, which is fisheggs), "sekihan" (red beans rice), "maki", and "inarizushi" again. again very tasty, but i'm glad i was told after i have eaten the "onigiri" that it had fishegg inside.

today, day 05, i got up late and went to McDonald's for my breakfast at about 10:30. then i headed for the "daijen-ji temple" in the "meguro" ward. while going there i found another little shrine, called "shimo meguro"[002]. actually i noticed there are loads of shrines and temples spread all over tokyo as it seems, no matter if it's an area full of skyscrapers or parks. as far as i have seen there's often a cemetery included. what you see on the picture is all of "shimo meguro" shrine. shrines and temples also often differ in size. "joenji-temple"[003-031] is much bigger and more popular. it has a strange arrangement of sculptures and some metal dragons too. it is popular for the 519 statues of enlightened followers of buddha, and each statue is unique. after taking the pictures i sat down on a bench in the shadow when suddenly a crow[022-031] was landing right next to me. i have never been that close to these animals before. pretty impressive birds. i guess this one was hungry, but unfortunately i had nothing to feed it. so the bird sat there for quite a while but then flew to other people in the shrine area. left alone by the bird i decided to move on to "meguro gajoen"[032-050], a big hotel and multipurpose community place that is very popular for weddings, that also has a japanese garden included. like all the other gardens i have seen so far it was a wonderful, quiet place within the loud city. on my way to my next stop i came by this love hotel[051,054]. love hotels can be rent on an hourly basis and are visited by couples, as usually the walls in japanese houses are very thin, so everyone can hear what's going on in the neighbours' room. they seem to be quite popular as i have already seen a lot of them, but not one that looks like a castle like this one on the picture. another temple on my way to my next stop, namely "meguro fudo temple"[056-064]. finally i arrived at the "tennonzan gohyaku rakanji tempel", but unfortunately taking pictures was not allowed. inside one can see 305 (of 500) arhat statues. arhat's were followers of buddha, but this time they were made of wood and not of stone as in the "joenji temple". i was totally alone in the entire temple area, which was great, especially when i was alone with 300 wooden statues. i forgot to mention that yesterday i was buying tickets for the "studio ghibli museum". tickets for this museum can exclusively be bought only at "lawson" convenience stores. but only a few seem to have a "loppi" machine. that's the vending machine where on can get the ticket. so i was lucky and found a lawson store, and (even more important) had Kaze_ with me. as it turned out, to buy a ticket is a really hard job, even for the employees at lawson, and especially if a non-japanese wants to buy a ticket. because you have to choose date and time when you want to arrive at the museum and you have to give your name to the lawson employee as it will be printed on the ticket too. so this guy said to Kaze_ he needs my name, i tell Kaze_ my name and then... well. how to type it on a japanese-only touchscreen-keyboard? after a while the guy typed something into this ticket vending machine. it took us almost ten minutes to finally get my "studio ghibli museum" ticket! i was really looking forward to visiting this museum since i had booked my flight and had found the museum's site on the internet. another strange thing about the museum: for non-japanese people there are shops you can buy it in europe, namely in the UK, france, and italy. there's an exhibition about ghibli art in another museum too, and guess what: tickets can be exclusively bought at lawson stores. but anyway, it was really worth all the effort (and pretty high entrance price of 6EUR compared to other museums in tokyo). inside the "studio ghibli" museum one can see quite a lot of great and interesting stuff. unfortunately taking pictures inside the museum was not allowed. the museum describes how a cartoon film is created step by step, and shows, for each step, original material from various "studio ghibli" films. additionally there's a cinema included that shows a 15 minute ghibli film i did not know yet. a kid's area with the huge cat bus the kids can climb is there too. outside[068-085] one can see the various creatures that appear in ghibli movies. the interior decoration is lovingly decorated and has many details that are worth to be explored. i really enjoyed this museum! for dinner i bought a bento-box[092] (i guess it was one) with all kind of japanese food in it. though for some pieces of the box i did not know what it was, nor what it's called, everything tasted delicious! additionally i bought japanese sweets and orange juice. the sweets taste strange, but ok. total costs: 4EUR. right now, while writing this bLog-entry there was another earthquake. this time the hotel was shaking even harder than it was on my first day. it also lasted longer and the mirror on the wall in my hotel room was constantly banging against the wall. quite impressive. minutes later: they even show it on almost all tv channels i have in the hotel. seems like this was even for japanese people a very strong one. the northern region gets rated "6.8" (that's were the center of the earthquake was), tokyo "4.0". seems like they refer to the richter scale. random facts for tokyo: the masks people wear are to protect others if the person wearing the mask is ill. women have their bags opened while riding in crowded trains, therefore i assume there are no pickpockets. additionally there are no beggars on the street, only a few homeless people who prefer to sleep on park benches.