Tokyo and Melting Bears

 02 April 2025

Continuing our day in Tokyo, my friends and I explored around the Shibuya area. The cherry trees (sakura) were almost in full bloom on this rainy day.

This is not THE Shibuya crossing but it is a busy one and there is this funky building with a garden up top where you can get a great view from above. 

Inside the upper floors was a food court, with various stalls and some seating outside (which was all wet). We also were lucky to stumble on this absolutely wonderful art cooperative for people with disabilities.

The current collaborative project, which we were invited to participate in for free, was making a heart from colored masking tape over a template, then peeling it off and sticking it onto the window. 

They had a variety of merchandise for sale made by the disabled artists. I bought a canvas bag with the words "it's a dog" because the artist drew a dog but it looked like a cat. 

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We also found them out on the street in another location, promoting World Autism Day. ♥

More street art in an underpass, showing some famous Japanese animated characters.

Rainy day in Shibuya. We popped into the liquor store because one of my friends is a whiskey aficionado. 

This plum wine has gold flakes in it. Google Translate seems to think otherwise...

And now for some dinnertime fun! This hot pot restaurant is called Kumachan Onsen (Little Bear Spa). You will soon see why.

The table has a hot plate built in where you place your hot pot. 

Each person chooses the color of their bear, which is made of gelatin and is flavorless, and what they want to add (meat, vegetables, tofu, soup flavoring). The noodles, salad, and pickles are included. I chose a tonkotsu flavor base which is in the small dish at the top of the picture. 

Once you turn on your hot plate, the bear begins to melt, tipping over and turning into a kind of adorable yet tragic figure as it melts into its "bath". 

Once there is enough liquid, you can add the flavoring and ingredients into the hot broth. There is a "sauce bar" where you can create your own dipping sauce. You eat it by picking things out of the hot pot and dipping them in your sauce to cool them enough to eat. 

Even the toilet was cute. (The control panel on the wall is for all the functions of the famed Japanese toilet.)

Mega Donki anyone? (It's a famous dollar store in Japan called Don Quixote, with the amusing nickname of "donki".)

The lights are beginning to come on and Shibuya is coming to life for the evening. I was tired and headed back to my capsule hotel for the night. 

Now THIS is the famous "Shibuya Scramble" crossing. The photo doesn't quite convey the feeling of how many people are crossing at once in different directions and trying to get across without colliding with someone is quite a challenge. 

And that's a wrap for the day. 

Cappiness: Capybara Cafe in Tokyo

 02 April 2025

Some dear friends from Hawaii were visiting Tokyo and we had the chance to meet up and spend a day together. One of them actually visited me the last time I was in Japan 30+ years ago, so it was also kind of nostalgic/surreal. 

They were staying in Shibuya so we started out there, breakfasting at a Hawaiian themed restaurant called Eggs 'n Things. When we paid, the host was very excited to meet some folks from Hawaii. 

The pancakes weren't the famous fluffy, jiggly kind, but the mountains of whipped cream made up for it. Mine was cherry blossom and matcha flavored. 

The cuteness is everywhere in Tokyo. 

The capybara cafe was called Cappiness and advance reservations are required. We had to wait for the capybaras to have their break time before our group was let in. Each group was given one cup of grass. some people rationed out the grass stalks carefully one by one and others fed them by handfuls and let much of it fall to the floor. It seems capybaras are too finicky to eat off the floor.  

There were a couple of cute stuffed capybaras (in case you couldn't get one of the real ones to come near you, I guess).

There was about 25 minutes of feeding the capybaras. Some of them were more enthusiastic than others. An attendant (standing, with apron) was monitoring closely the entire time. 

Their hair feels extremely coarse, just the way it looks.

They haven't got the cleft upper lip that some animals have, and the way their mouth moves when they eat is really funny and interesting. 

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There were three in total, and after a while these two had had enough of people and moved into a corner to chill. The third one just kept eating!

VIDEO PLACEHOLDER

The attendant gave a brief informational presentation with really adorable drawings on a large notepad. 

There was a spin the wheel prize giveaway (extra grass, a capybara photo, stickers, or magnets) for each group.

At the end, the capybaras were given a dish of pellets and each group got a group photo taken together with them.

This was definitely fun and interesting. 

Japan Day 2: Tokyo Ryogoku and a new ukulele

13 March 2025

Travel requires so much more walking than I am used to. Between that and jet lag, I am ready to go to sleep by 5:00PM. Today I managed to stay awake through it until bedtime and watch the sumo tournament on TV. 

Speaking of sumo, today's wanderings took me to Ryogoku, the area of the sumo arena. I could see the roof of it from the train station. Even though the sumo wrestlers and everyone supporting them are away for the tournament in Osaka right now and the place is deserted, I still couldn't resist stopping and having a look around. 

The train station is decorated with sumo-themed murals. 

At the station entrance is a statue of two sumo wrestlers, the chubby way they are depicted reminds me of the paintings by Colombian artist Fernando Botero. 

The arena, called Ryogoku Kokugikan, looks smaller amongst all the new high-rise buildings than I thought it would. 

In the background you can see the Tokyo Skytree, a tower which can be seen from various spots around Tokyo just like the TV Tower (Fernsehturm) in Berlin.

Speaking of towers, this is the tower in which the drummers sit during the tournament to drum before and after each day's event. 

Here is the ticket office.

Even the benches on the street are sumo-themed. There is a museum exhibiting the paintings of Hokusai nearby, so this is the perfect pairing: sumo sketches by Hokusai.

Around the corner from the Kokugikan is this hidden gem. This little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Shimofusa-ya Shokudō is run by an old couple and serves home-style Japanese cooking, nothing fancy. 

Service is cafeteria style: you select your main and sides from a glass case and put them on a tray; the owners add rice, miso soup, and tea and you take it to your table. It was like the neighborhood diner, everyone but me appeared to be regular customers. The food was simple but delicious and just what I had been wanting. I was also given a dish of sliced apples for dessert on the house. 

After paying my bill, the owner brought me these little handmade origami figures and proceeded to explain to me what each one is (peace crane, samurai helmet, ninja throwing star). According to customer reviews I read online, she gives these to all the foreign visitors, such a sweet gesture. 

Behind the restaurant was a little park called the Kyu-Yasuda Gardens with a man-made lake in the middle and a tiny somewhat dilapidated shrine. 

There is that Skytree again...

This man in a black suit with a leather briefcase could have stepped right out of any anime.

There were a handful of other people in this small park, but it was quite peaceful. The day was a bit steamy after the rain so I was glad of a bit of shade. 

There was a photographer shooting something, I followed her view and there was a fancy duck on the water. 

According to the informational sign at the park entrance, the lake is in the shape of the Japanese character for heart 心 and was designed with a system that ebbs and flows with the nearby river. 

I was lucky to get some nice photos of a heron and his turtle buddies.

The day's other agenda item was musical instrument shopping, since I wasn't able to bring my ukulele with me. In the first shop I browsed, no one even greeted me, so I moved on. I found a shop called Shimoda Musical Instruments that had fewer ukuleles but far friendlier staff. With the help of a very nice gentleman I purchased my new friend, this inexpensive but sweet-sounding ukulele from Kailua. He told me that he had scouted a number of uke factories in China, and Kailua stood out from the rest because all the workers were not just assembly line but actually played the ukulele and were familiar with it.

It was a good day's wanderings.