愛子さまの誕生日

Today is the eighth birthday of 敬宮愛子内親王 (Princess Aiko) of the Japanese Royal Family.

Princess Aiko at her school's 運動会 ("Sports Day") six weeks ago (2009 Oct).

And yesterday was the 44th birthday of her uncle, 秋篠宮文仁親王 (Prince Akishino).

Prince Akishino with his wife Princess Kiko

Today my wife and I went to check out the construction of the Tokyo Sky Tree (click here to see my previous post about this tower), and to see the イチョウ祭り (Gingko Festival) at 明治神宮外苑 (Meiji Grand Shrine Outer-Garden).

Here are some photos I took of the Tokyo Sky Tree tower today:

Only 30% complete so far...it's gonna be huge when it's done!

I always wonder how they get the cranes on top of tall buildings and towers when they're being built.

So far it's 224 meters tall. When done, it'll stand 634 meters high.

The reflection of the "Tokyo Sky Tree" in the water.

From there, we went to the イチョウ祭り (Gingko Festival) at 明治神宮外苑 (Meiji Grand Shrine Outer-Garden). (Click here to see the festival’s homepage).

I only took one photo at the festival of the イチョウ (Gingko Trees) in autumn color:

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:

Random

Just some random thoughts and observations, and some photos of various places around Tokyo.

First, when we visited Florida a few years ago, I went to the 7-11 convenience store to buy a six-pack of beer late one evening. But when I went to open the beer cooler, it was locked. The cashier told me that it’s illegal to sell alcohol in Florida after 1:00AM!

I was surprised by that. In Japan, alcohol can be bought at anytime day or night at 7-11 and elsewhere. There are even beer vending machines in Japan.

I looked at the internet and it seems that Florida’s laws are fairly liberal when compared to other states in America (In America, states make their own laws. Unlike other countries, like Japan, that have only federal laws).

For example, in Mississippi, not only are there hours of the day that you can’t buy alcohol…it also isn’t to be sold on Sundays and Christmas!

Missouri seems to be one of the strictest. In that state, alcohol isn’t sold after midnight or 1AM (depending on the day), public intoxication is illegal, and drinking outdoors is, as well.

I guess I have been living in Japan for a long time, because that all seems medieval to me.

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Speaking of 7-11 in America, they are quite different from the ones in Japan.

In Japan’s 7-11 stores, there are no “Slurpees” or “Big Gulp” drinks, nor nachos or aspirin or gasoline (there’s no “Slurpee”, “Big Gulps” or nachos because those don’t appeal to Japanese tastes…but 7-11 Japan doesn’t sell medicine or gas because, in Japan, medicine can only sold by licensed pharmacists and gasoline at petrol stands).

But at Japanese convenience stores, you can pay your bills, mail packages, buy DVDs, toothpastes, underwear, boxed lunches, ice cream, spaghetti, おにぎり (rice balls), squid, beer, whiskey, おでん (Japanese boiled “hot-pot” food), and more.

7-11, by the way, has over 34,000 stores worldwide. 6,200 of them are in America…but Japan has the most—over 12,000 Seven-Eleven stores are in Japan!

The Japanese department stores chain, Ito-Yokado bought the controlling shares of 7-11 stocks years ago.

Ito-Yokado‘s logo is a white dove and it used to be used above all of their stores. But since most of their profits come from the 7-11 stores, they decided to emphasize the 7-11 name. So now all of their department stores have a “7 & i Holdings” sign above the stores (“7” for “7-11” and “i” for “Ito-Yokado”).

Not only does Ito-Yokado own the 7-11 worldwide chain, they also own the “Denny’s” family restaurant chain.

Here’s the “old” Ito-Yokado sign (I took a photo of it a few years ago when I heard that they were changing the signs nationwide):

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Mariah Carey was on TV here recently because she came to Tokyo to promote a new CD.

I’m not a fan of her music so I don’t know much about her, but she seems right weird!

She was doing an interview on a popular morning talk show that I like to watch…and her young husband tagged along and they were snuggling the whole time.

Then the next day, she threw the opening pitch at the Tokyo Dome for a Tokyo Giants baseball game.

She wore stiletto heels on the field and rather than throw the ball…she dropped it right it front of herself.

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Did you hear about the homeless woman in 福岡 (Fukuoka, Japan) who was living in a single man’s closet for a year?

In Japanese homes, there’s a small storage space above closets that many people seldom open, and that’s where this woman was living.

She got into his house and stayed in the closet when the homeowner was home, but whenever he’d leave, she’d get out and take a shower and eat his food.

He found her because he installed a security camera in his house when he noticed food missing.

***

Anyways…

here are a few pictures I took around Tokyo: