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!

Spring purikura

(These are from our favourite purikura machine at the aeon Atsuta mall (no connection to the company I work for). We always look so healthy and sparkly!)

(Most of them turned out so nice that we didn't want to mess them up with silly hats or pictures. So instead, we just added a ton of sparkles, some Godlight and the date)

(Doesn't Elspeth look like an ad for the 'modern religious woman'? It's got to be all that Godlight. Unfortunately, I look like I'm about to go cross-eyed)

A walk around Rokubancho (with a contest!!)

(Safty First!)

Today the weather was frickin awesome (warm and sunny) so Elspeth and I decided to take a walk around my neighbourhood while we waited for our hair appointments. We started by walking down to Hibino subway station where we tried to figure out what kind of overpass/off-ramp/bridge to nowhere they are building down the main street.

(A rooftop shrine)

We turned right and decided to go an adventure down a street we'd never noticed before. It turns out we hit the jackpot. Not only did we find a video store (where Elz picked up another taiko drum for her PS2) but we also found an electronics store, a UNIQLO (where we both found some clothes for Thailand) and a chicken/fish (??) restaurant.

We turned at main intersection and wandered over a bridge. We found the garden I had visited on my first day in Japan (Shirotori Garden). I never knew it was so close to my apartment. We chilled under some sakura trees, watched some tourist boats go by on the river/canal and Elspeth spotted the sign for a crab restaurant. We went to investigate and found an awesome place for lunch. So delicious!

(Yummy!)

After lunch we walked back across the bridge and spotted a frightening sight - a kid sliding down a slide...but not any slide....a slide that went from the roof of a building to the floor below! We found the entrance and discovered a weird rooftop park, complete with Astroturf, men playing mah jong, strange vents and the slide of death. Of course we had to try it and video it.

(The butt-hurting slide and the strange astro-turfed park)

Here's video of Elspeth going down the slide



Next I went and Elspeth was supposed to video it. Unfortunately, she didn't know how to use the video function on my camera and only caught me as I was getting off the slide (it killed my tailbone!).

* CONTEST TIME * We will send candy to the first person who posts how many times Elspeth says 'THE' and to the first person who posts what colour 'croc bling' she has (crocs = shoes with holes)(bling = decorative extra doo-da). Leave your answers in the comments section. HINT: pausing and watching multiple times may be helpful...muuhuuhhaaahaaa.



I had to go down the slide again so that Elz could tape more than me standing up. In this video I'm chanting 'this hurts' under my breath the whole time. Ouch.



We walked back to get our haircuts, ate Chinese food, watched movies (We liked 'Man of the Year') and planned some of our next adventures! Who knew my neighbourhood was so cool?!

Remember - post those answers in the comments section and you may find some Japanese candy heading your way!