Tokyo Madness Part One: Ume Matsuri, ice cream, swan boats and purikura

When: Sunday March 9, 2008
Where: Mito (north of Tokyo) & Tokyo
Info: Both Elspeth and I had visited 2 of the 3 most famous gardens in Japan (Korakuen in Okayama and Kenrokuen in Kanazawa) so we decided to visit the last one, Kairakuen in Mito. We timed our visit with the ume (plum) blossoms.

(Japan is such a diet obsessed society! In the special "girls' day" box of koala cookies there were a number of girl koalas who were weighing themselves...I was not impressed)

(This boy koala was suffering from a stab wound)

(Crocheted shinkansen and car want you to go to an onsen! And Momo (peach) Girl wants you to take pictures of sakura!)

We had to wait about an hour for our train from Tokyo to Mito so we grabbed some udon at our new fav train station restaurant. You go in, choose the broth and noodles you want and then cafeteria-style move your tray down the line and choose the topping stuff for your udon. Crunchy fried mushrooms and vegetables were my choice.


Because it was the ume matsuri (plum festival) the train made a special stop right at the garden. We hopped off and immediately could smell the blossoms. There were a lot of people but somehow the garden absorbed them well. We headed directly for the ume tree forest.


The trees weren't quite 100% in bloom but it was still beautiful to walk through the 'forest'. We were allowed to walk off the path (I know, shocking!) onto the grass to get up close and personal with the ume trees.


I loved the trees and the flowers. The flowers were a bit stronger looking than sakura blossoms and the smell was amazing! I wanted ume perfume! The flowers were either white, pink or hot pink (my favourite).

(Some older ladies enjoying a girls' picnic under the ume trees)

(Spy photo of Miss Ume Matsuri - we found her doing promotional shots. Later we found 4 more kimono-clad ume matsuri ladies walking through the park)

(Aaron shot)

(I LOVE this photo)

(It was obviously stupid o'clock)
(If you're wondering where my stupid photos are, they're on Elspeth's camera)

(More Aaron shots in front of a bamboo grove)

It wouldn't be a festival without festival food! They had quite the assortment but I only bought a small and tasty kabucha (Japanese pumpkin) cake-thing. I love the look of those skewered fish cooked over the fire but I have no idea how you're supposed to eat one gracefully.

(What happens when you take a not-up-close photo with your camera set on the digital-macro setting)

(This man here sneezed non-stop for about 3 minutes, the whole time taking pictures that required him to crouch and bend into bizarre shapes. His girlfriend watched...she didn't look that interested)

(Here's Elspeth showing you the bendy shape of the branch near the top right of the picture. Thanks Elz.)

You have no idea how tempted I was to buy a tiny plum tree to bring back to my apartment. Then I remembered how bad I am with plants...and decided on plum ice cream instead. This ice cream was amazing. More like frozen yogurt than ice cream and pleasantly sour, it was perfect.


(We raced some people to a bench and rested our aching feet. We people watched and commented on the crazy inappropriate garden clothes (especially shoes) that some people were wearing)

A few months ago, when visiting Kawaguchi-ko, we saw swan boats and REALLY wanted to go on them but it had been too cold (and not open on the Monday). This time nothing was going to stop us. We rented a boat and paddled around. We attracted quite a lot of attention from other boaters and the numerous birds and ducks. It was enjoyable.

(The pink dino/Nessie boat cost more money. boo.)

After our boating excursion we decided to walk from the garden to the JR Mito station. The walk was refreshing. Along the way we cheered on joggers, avoided nesting black swans and wondered aloud about the man in front of us who appeared to be wearing tap shoes. In Mito we caught the express train back to Tokyo and headed to Shibuya. We ate some Western/German/European food and then went to find some purikura.

(Yeah, it looks like a strip club but it's actually a purikura centre. An entire room of purikura machines! We jumped into a booth and went to work. Unfortunately, when there are a lot of people waiting, you get less time to decorate. So after one session we went to find a less crowded game centre)

We watched the famous intersection for a while and I still think there aren't that many people. Is Toronto going to feel empty?



Stay tuned for part two of Tokyo Madness!