50 hours in Tokyo

This weekend, a friend of mine was in town for just a little over two days.  That's not a whole lot of time when you're in a city like this one, so I had a hard time even whittling down the list of suggestions for things to do. We settled on a tentative itinerary, and in the end got through most of it.  Here's a recap of the last 50 hours:

Hours 1-3
Freshly arrived in the city, and not even checked into her hotel yet, my friend and I made our way to Rikugien garden to see the autumn illumination. (She gets the credit for this first photo, as mine turned out blurry...) After the garden we went back to my neighborhood for dinner.

     
Hours 13-18
We caught the train and made our way out to Kamakura, where we saw a big buddha, some little buddhas, and beautiful fall colors.

    
Hours 21-27
Back in the city, we stopped at my place for a break and made plans for the evening: dinner at La Colina (Mexican) at Tokyo Midtown, Christmas lights and a lovely vista from Tokyo City View, then ice cream at Ouca.

Flavors, clockwise from top: kiwi, kinako (soy bean powder), and baked sweet potato.
On napkin: salted kelp for a palate cleanser.

    
Hours 38-50
After a bit of extra sleep, we headed first for the Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku, which offers sweeping views of the city (including Mt. Fuji when clear)...for free!  After that we were off to enjoy sangrias at the Spanish Festival, followed by a trip to Asakusa, and a ferry ride down the Sumida River.

Look hard...can you see Mt. Fuji?

Tokyo Sky Tree

    
After all that, what was left but to let ourselves be spoiled at my favorite neighborhood eatery? The cook--a friend of mine--had asked me ahead of time what my friend would like to eat and had made specific food purchases accordingly.  As a result, we were treated to a tapas-style vegetarian meal that even included cheesecake made from tofu.  I tell you, it would be difficult to top a weekend like this...

I think I'm a pretty good tour guide. ;)

Wakayama, Shikoku, Okayama: Day 7

I'm already back after my week-long holiday (that is, until next Tuesday when I take off again) and I have some final photos to share from yesterday's excursion to Kurashiki:

The weather forecast was for clouds and grey skies, but as soon as I stepped outside my hotel I saw:

   
I stopped to get some "breakfast", which I took right back outside so I could enjoy it with the view. Inside Okayama Station there's a place that sells Belgian waffles in all sorts of flavors. Their November flavor is caramel apple, and I swear they must pipe the air from their bakery all over the station- you can smell that flavor everywhere.  It made my mouth water each time I walked by...

Little bits of chopped up apple are baked into the waffle

     
Not really breakfast food, but can you blame me?

After a short train ride, I was in Kurashiki and ready to walk around (already had to burn off some calories...).  The town's main attraction is its historical district, but I wandered down the shopping promenade first.

I've been looking for scraps of kimono silk for a sewing project I hope to work on soon, but in Tokyo these scraps are either really hard to come by, or overpriced.  So when I spotted a small kimono shop with a cart of scraps out front, I had a look. What they had wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but then the man who owns the shop came out to talk to me.  I asked if they had anything wider; they did.

Just a sampling of what I picked up...

Not only did they have a comparatively large selection of scraps, but their prices were also generally more reasonable and they were all 30% off. I was so thrilled, I ended up going back again later in the day to pick up a few more pieces before leaving town.

They were such friendly people, and they even gave me some freebies, too! If any of my readers are in need of kimonos or kimono fabric and are planning on visiting Kurashiki, please stop by 毛利呉服店 (I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but if you copy and paste into your search bar, it'll pull up a map).

Shopping bag in hand, I headed towards the historical district.

     
For a weekday in the off-season, there was more going on than I'd expected, and since the weather was so pleasant it was a nice day for a walk.  On this trip, more than others I've taken before, I've felt less like going inside museums and more like wandering. Still, some of the museums were pretty interesting even from the outside:

A combination "dogs museum", "character museum", "piggy bank museum", and antique mall...

A museum dedicated to Momotaro ("peach boy"), a character from a Japanese folktale originating in Okayama

        
I couldn't have asked for better weather. It was so nice, in fact, that I actually let myself get lost once or twice walking down side streets.

    
I did stop at one museum, though: the Ohara Museum of Art, containing paintings by many of the famed European painters of the early 20th century like Monet, Renoir and Matisse. There's also a building containing local pottery, modern Japanese prints, and ancient Chinese statues and vases, as well as another gallery for 20th/21st century Japanese painting. Even the grounds themselves were beautiful:

A view of the Shinkei-en garden on the museum grounds

          
After leaving the museum, it was time for a snack. I saw no reason to stop after the waffle I'd had in the morning: my afternoon break at Momoko included this budō (grape) parfait:

Red + green grapes, grape sherbet, vanilla ice cream, a bit of cake,
a layer of corn flakes, and grape gelatin on the bottom.

      
Ready to start walking again, I made one more loop around the historical district and the canal before heading in the direction of the station.

Near the parfait shop

Tourists enjoying rides on the canal

     
The shopping streets are an interesting sight, offering all kinds of wares to tourists.

Okayama is proud of its denim.
And for about $100, I could have bought a kimono made of it...

      
Back at the station, I savored one more sunset. A day of perfect skies, and what a wonderful way to finish my trip!

      
Now that I'm back, I've got just enough time to do some laundry and spend the weekend with a long-time friend visiting Tokyo from the States before I head to Hokkaido and Tohoku next week!

Wakayama, Shikoku, Okayama: Day 6

This morning wasn't as rushed as others have been, thankfully, because my destination was not too far--just the other side of the train tracks!

Painted shutters on a street in Okayama City

   
I stopped first at the Okayama City Orient Museum, which specializes in ancient artifacts from places like modern-day Syria, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and so on. (Sorry...they didn't allow any photos.)

One of the best pieces of museum-visiting advice I've ever received has been to make sure that you go to galleries or exhibitions that are outside of your area of interest. You never know what will surprise you and you may see things differently after exploring them a little. This was certainly true today: this museum had not been at the top of my list for things I wanted to do here, but I left with a new appreciation for how advanced (and artistic!) the 4,000 year-old pieces had been, since I'd expected them to be much simpler or plainer.

And of course, I got a laugh out of the fact that the second floor contained a few display cases of Iranian statues and the rest of the floor was filled with...19th century Japanese prints.

Anyway, from there I moved on to one of the highlights of my trip: Kōraku-en. This garden is one of the Nihon sanmeien, or Three Great Gardens of Japan. I visited another this past January on my trip to the Hokuriku region, and the third...that's still coming up in December.  All three in a single year!

    
The weather was fair today, but as you can see in the pictures, whether or not the sky looks blue depends on the direction I was facing.  Still, it was nice enough that I could take off my sweater and enjoy the walk.

   
Today was also a national holiday, which is popular for weddings. So in addition to little girls dressed in kimono for their 7-5-3 (shichi-go-san), there were also plenty of couples taking advantage of such beautiful scenery for their wedding photos:

Shichi-go-san

A bride and groom, trailed by their photographer (over the groom's left shoulder)

Feeding the koi (these two were possibly my favorites)

Same girls as above, bending over to watch the koi swim by

I don't blame her for taking off her zōri (sandals)...those things hurt after a while!

   
And of course, I stopped to feed the fishies!

Little baggies of 'Fish food' in the bowl--and I'm not embarrassed to admit I bought two of these today...

     
Eventually I made my way over to the castle, which adjoins and overlooks the garden. I really liked the black woodwork, which is different from the other castles I've visited.

 
In fact, the castle is visible from a lot of angles in the garden:

   
Returning to the garden, I took one last loop around.

   
After the three-hour walk, I realized that I'd actually put more effort into feeding the fish than I had to feeding myself.  Luckily there were a few food stands just outside the gate, and I picked up a delicious an-nō imo croquette, a croquette made with an incredibly tasty golden sweet potato.

But that only made me hungrier. :)

So with that, I made my way back towards the station to find some dinner, and then on to my hotel. Tonight's plan involves working out an itinerary for my last day of vacation, but I'm a little still hungry, so I think I'll hop down to Mister Donut for some dessert...