March 22, 2006

• Japan At Last! Part 3-Meiji Jingu Park and Harajuku

  So a new day dawned bright and early, and after finishing up our fugu
  and living, we decided to revisit some of the places we had been on our
  last trip to Japan…such as Meiji Jingu Park…so this post will be a
  little segment called “then and now” where you can see the contrast
  between Japan Winter 2006 and Summer 2003 which was the last time I went

  SO lets begin, shall we?
  
  here is me at the tori marking the entrance to meiji jingu park, and
  yes i am holding up the peace sign…i just can’t help myself

  kept on walking along when what to wondering eye should appear bull a wall made of barrels filled with sake, not beer!
  
  Let’s flash back to 2003
  
  Yup, sake sure does make me happy…

  Moving right along…We came to the shrine in the center of the park.
  Now last time i was here, there was a shinto wedding taking place…and
  guess what? 3 years and 2 seasons later, there was again…the gods
  must have been smiling upon me, and I took a few more pics for you guys
  (well, for me too…)
  
  
  pretty neat, huh? and even in focus this time around…
  
  2003 shinto wedding…not sure if i was allowed to take pics, so it was some serious guerilla photography…

  Anyway, because it was apparently some holiday, there was even some
  street theater going on in front of the temple as well…some story
  about someone who slays a dragon, and meets an old woman, and some
  other stuff…probably a fairly well known japanese legend, but seeing
  as how the last time i studied this stuff was in undergrad, i am a
  little rusty, and my japanese had definetly gone down a little in
  quality…
  
  As part of the show there were two competing teams telling parts of the
  story, and each team had to make their own dragon, just like they did
  for chinese new year by balancing on each other and what not….this is
  the pink team. Even priest were in attendance which is how i know this is some important story…or maybe he just likes s

  
  

  
  here is the blue team…
  
  Pink team let is take a picture with them and the dragon
  
  good dragon…want a scooby snack?
  After, Andy and I went to the iris garden…while it was definetly nice
  to walk around there in the winter, the scenery was
  somewhat…anticlimactic
  
  contrast this with what it looks like in the summer
  
  2003 with mikey, navy mike, michelle, me and andysensei…we are on the brigde you see in the upper photo
  
  and a painting of us too! no, really…
  
  in summer the iris garden was filled with people…in fall it was just
  andysensei, myself, and a few birdwatchers who were all camo’d out

  For more pics from 2003 Japan trip click here
  or here
  or just go to entry june 24th 2003 and look around at the surrounding entries and whatnot

  Afterward, we went outside the park to surrounding harajuku, another
  suburb of tokyo where the teens gather to dress in the latest fashion,
  which by our standards is goth…
  
  see? even scary goths make the peace sign…

  
  in japanese fashion AND  culture, maids play a large role. i dont quite know why, but i like it…you will see why later
  
  The girl in the middle is pretty cute…the red contacts she is wearing
  only add to the effect…but can you tell if the two flanking here are
  male or female? dont be so sure…
  
  And one more pic of last year with the harajuku people…i used to be
  all about the crazy ninja suit…but now how cute is that little
  hat….seriously? its adorable in a terrifying way. And yes readers, i
  do in fact have dyed blond hair in this pic…
  here is what i look like with it up close and personal…
  
  what do you think folks? going to china this summer to study
  acupuncture…back to the blond hair and thin beard, or stick with the
  natural dark and thick…oh yeah baby

  anyway that’s it for this post…until the next one

  -J

  Fact of the Day:
  In liquid form, the entire population of the United States could fit into ten major league stadiums, filled to the brim.

  • 11:46 pm
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