Kanamara Matsuri Festival!!!

Kawasaki

Ok so call me crazy but this is the main reason why we came to Japan this year...The first Sunday of April Kawasaki puts on a fertility festival - Kanamara Matsuri.  Only the Japanese would throw a party celebrating the penis!

If you ever plan on going, one word of advice:  GO EARLY.  The festival starts at 11 but it gets crowded real fast.  We were there at 8:30 to stand in line for lollipops, which the line opened at 9 and got suuuuuper long.  I was one of the first in line :)

The weather was ugly when we got there and thankfully it cleared up (sort of!) so it wouldn't be a muddy mess.

I wanted to buy a bottle of this sake but we were worried it would break bringing it home

Waiting for the parade...

This was right around 11...

Another word of advice...don't wait around at the start of the parade like I did if you want to take pictures.  I got crappy pictures because there were too many people in the way.  Go down the block across the street from the temple where it's less crowded

Like I said, go early.  This is around noon after the parade had passed.  This is the beginning of the line just to get in

This is the back

When we jumped on the subway I noticed that the line went around the block all the way to the next street!

My lollipop stash...

How to get there:

Jump on the Yamanote Line to Shinagawa Station (or Asakusa line > Sengakuji)

Switch to Keikyu Line > Keikyu Kawasaki (around 10 mins on the Rapid Ltd. Exp. or around 25 mins on the local service)

Change to the Keikyu Daishi Line > Kawasaki Daishi

Take the South Exit, you will see a Sunkus store across the street.  Go into the street to the right of it and the temple will be on the right.  

Have fun!

More Cherry Blossoms!

Naka-Meguro

We didn't have anything planned today and we had to move house once again (in case you didn't know, we only had accomodations for certain dates because we didn't have anything planned.  We are just winging it!) so we just walked around town a bit today.

We're back in the Hatchobori area, and the streets here are beautiful!!  We stay here all the time but we never really walked around the area.

I also went to check out the new Snoopy museum which isn't open yet (WAAAAHHHH!!)  It was supposed to open late March but they now changed the date to April 23rd.  I was hoping the gift shop would be open or something but I was out of luck :(

It was still under construction and I wanted to ask them if I could go in just to take a picture with one of the Snoopys but Randy wouldn't let me

After a quick lunch we headed back to the hotel to check in and to rest our feet a little bit.  Since we had nothing to do we headed to Naka-Meguro to check out the night viewing of the cherry blossoms.  Sheesh.  I thought Ueno was bad.  This place was a madhouse!! Getting out of the station was a nightmare but all in all it was a fun experience...until people started shoving me while I was taking pictures >:(

It was kinda hard keeping steady with all the people around. These aren't as sharp as I had liked but I guess it's good enough.

Stay tuned...tomorrow should be a crazy day!!

It's Springtime In Japan!

Ueno Park

I must say...Randy and I have been lucky whenever we visit in the spring.  Since there's only about a two week window to see the cherry blossoms in view, I think this is the third or fourth time we've come in the spring and each time it's been in full bloom.

What a difference a few days make.  We came to Ueno on the second day we were here just to check on the progress of the trees.  They were pretty bare, just a few here and there blooming.  When we walked in today here's what we saw...

The place was packed!  As much as I love the internet I think it's starting to ruin all the places i've come to love.  People pushing and shoving, selfie sticks everywhere you turn...when I came here for the first time it was nothing like this.  That's because we had to research it in travel books...and who wants to do that these days??

I had to hunt for spots where nobody was in my way...

We bought these sweet potato sticks as a snack.  It was really good!

See what I mean?

I was able to get a semi-smile out of Randy!

Nikko

Friday, October 11, 2013

We split from the parents today and headed to Nikko.  They had already gone there on a different trip so they opted to holoholo around the city instead.  We started off bright and early (5:45) to catch the Asakusa train to Nikko.  It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there on the slower train so we wanted to get an early start.  Remember how I was complaining on how hot and humid it's been?  This is the temperature when we got there.

We jumped on a bus to the Rinnouji Temple since it was raining and spent a couple of hours there

Thank goodness it started clearing up shortly after we got there

A lot of school kids where there on an excursion too

CHEEEZU!!

Where's Waldo??

Did you know that the three wise monkeys (hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil) were created in Nikko??

I think we needed more than a day in Nikko.  By the time we were out of the temple it was almost time to head back to Tokyo.  We had to meet the parents for dinner at 5.  There's lots of cool waterfalls and onsens around the area but you gotta take an hour bus ride to get there.  

Not sure what's in store for tomorrow, might be a shopping day since it's gonna be our last full day here :(