渋谷フェスタ

This was a three-day weekend that just ended. Monday (November 3) was 文化の日 (Culture Day).

There were are always a number of festivals on Culture Day weekend.

On Sunday, we went to 原宿 (Harajuku) because my kids like to go shopping there (just like all teenagers in Tokyo do!) and from there we went to the 渋谷フェスタ (Shibuya Festival).

Harajuku is very crowded…especially 竹下通り (Takeshita Street):

Outside the World-famous Laforet store, I noticed that they already have their X-mas tree up!

We stopped by 明治神宮 (Meiji Grand Shrine). They were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the shrine’s being restored after the damage from WW2.

They were having a festival in the evening…but we didn’t stay for it.
At the shrine, we saw little girls aged 3 and 7 and little boys aged 5 who were there dressed up in 着物 (kimono) for their 七五三 (7-5-3 Festival). (You can read my short FAQ about that holiday by clicking here )

From there, we walked to 代々木公園 (Yoyogi Park). Every Sunday, many people gather in groups in or near the park and some groups are dressed as Cosplay and some are rock bands practicing and others are dancing groups, etc.
These are their hobbies and they like to meet at Yoyogi Park on Sundays and relax. But visitors to Tokyo might be surprised by some of them. (Until about ten years ago, there used to be alot more groups there on Sundays. The street outside the park would be closed to traffic on Sundays to accommodate them all!)

One of the most famous groups (beside the Cosplay) are the Rockabillies. “Rockabilly” is an early style of rock ‘n roll from the 1950’s that is basically a combination of rock and country (which was sometimes called “hillbilly music” back then).
The Stray Cats are probably the most famous rockabilly band…and they still have many fans in Japan.
Rockabilly style is leather, ’50s style tattoos, greased hair and hot rod cars…and ’50s rock music.

The Rockabilly groups in Yoyogi Park gather on Sundays and listen to their old rock music and dance. Many foreigners mistake them for Elvis impersonators. They listen to Elvis style music…but they’re not impersonating him.

Here’s a couple of videos of them:

Elvis is in 原宿 (Harajuku), though:

This statue of Elvis Presley is outside the Rock N Roll Museum store. They have sections devoted to Elvis, The Stray Cats, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, KISS, etc.

From there, we walked to the 渋谷フェスタ (Shibuya Festival).
There were lots of booths where you could buy food and beer, or crafts and goods, or play a game, etc. It was similar to 区民祭り (Residents Festivals).

At one booth they were making mochi, which is pulverized rice. And they gave it away until they ran out. We were able to get some each. It was quite good.

Here’s a video of them making the mochi. It’s called 「もちつき」 (“Mochi-tsuki”):

It was a fun day.

Here are some other pictures I took:

Here’s the CC Lemon Hall. (I hate that name. It used to be called 渋谷公会堂 (Shibuya Koukaidou) since it was built in 1964 for the ’64 Tokyo Olympics…until they sold the naming rights to a beverage company).
I saw my first concert in Japan here (Death Angel in 1991):

And we were surprised by the size of these cabbages:

And finally, we went home from 渋谷駅 (Shibuya Train Station). The intersection in front of this station is said to be the busiest intersection in the world.
Here are a couple videos of it that I took:

横浜

Yesterday was the last day of my kids’ Spring Vacation from school. Today’s the first day of the new school year.

So, yesterday, we decided to go to Yokohama again.

Actually, we originally planned to go to the “Friendship Day Festival” at the US Navy base. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there. But we heard that they were canceling the event due to the recent crimes by US servicemen.
Since we were gonna go down to 神奈川県 (Kanagawa), we decided to re-visit Yokohama.

As I mentioned in the post below, we hadn’t been to Yokohama in awhile and alot has changed there over the years. And the last time we went, we didn’t have time to visit all the places we wanted to go.

So, yesterday, we went to the 「横浜アンパンマンこどもミュージアム」 (“Yokohama Anpanman Children’s Museum”).

“Anpanman” is a Japanese young children’s cartoon character of a superhero made of bean-stuffed bread named “Anpan-man” (“Bean-paste Bread Man”). He, and his friends (who are all different food characters), battle the villians who are led by “Baikinman” (“Germ Man”) using good nutrition, soap, and kindness (it is a cartoon for young children, after all).

My kids have long outgrown any interest in Anpanman. So we didn’t go into the museum…but visited the bread store and gift shops.

Here’s a picture of some bread made in the image of some of the characters from the show:

After we left there, we walked past a road that is semi-famous in Yokohama because it has a wall the entire length of the road that is covered in elaborate graffiti.

Here are a bit of the art that caught my attention:

From there, we headed over to a park and ate a picnic lunch that my wife and daughters prepared and then we walked over to the 野毛山動物園 (“Nogeyama Zoo”).

The 横浜動物園 (“Yokohama Zoo”) is the main zoo in Yokohama and it’s a great zoo. But the Nogeyama Zoo is nice too…and it’s free!

For a free zoo, I was surprised how nice it is, actually. They have reptiles, birds, penguins, monkeys, giraffes, tigers, lions (the male lion had died recently), a camel and a petting zoo with small animals (chicks, guinea pigs, mice, etc) that kids can hold.

It was nice and we enjoyed it.

After we left the zoo, we went to 山下公園 (“Yamashita Park”). We hadn’t been there in years…I was surprised that they built a convenience store there. It’s a good location for one, though. I bet they get alot of customers.

“Yamashita Park” is near 横浜中華街 (“Yokohama Chinatown”), so we headed there.

Near Chinatown, there were many 人力車 (“Rick shaw”) drivers offering rides around the area (Rick-shaw can be found in many traditional areas of Japan offering rides to tourists). (“Rick-shaw”, by the way, comes from the Japanese word 人力車 (jin-riki-sha ) which translates, literally, to “Man powered vehicle”).

Here’s the entrance to Chinatown (can you tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese style? Both countries have torii gates, temples, shrines, paper lanterns, etc…but they look quite different.):

A closer look:

After we looked around Chinatown a bit, we went for dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours and then headed home.

The girls had school in the morning.