Shakey’s Pizza in Japan (again)
Dessert pizza at Shakey’s in Tokyo anyone?
TravelJapanBlog.com - Japan (07, 09-10, 13), Denmark (08, 11, 16-19, 21, 24), Korea (13), Poland (21), Mexico (14, 15, 19, 26), Iceland (17, 19), Hawaii (14, 17, 22), Czech Republic (16, 17, 19, 21)
|
The above will search Traveljapanblog.com. Concerts - Landscapes - Sports |
Archive for Japan
Year of the Tiger ema
Here is a closeup of the tiger (寅) ema discussed in yesterday’s entry.
The stamp on the lower right of the ema is the official one of Meiji Jingu. It says Meiji Jingu (from top to bottom and right to left 明治神宮) in funky script.
Meiji Shrine Gate on New Year’s Day
The south gate is the main approach to the Meiji Shrine. Normally you can walk right up to this point, but on New Year’s Day it may take an hour or more to reach this area from the Harajuku Station. If you want to avoid the crowd, there are other entrances (like from Yoyogi Station, past the archery area and through the west gate).
Notice the giant ema (wooden wish plaques or 絵馬) and arrows (hamaya or 破魔矢) on the gate. The shrine does a massive business in selling smaller versions of these items (and other good luck trinkets) for the first week of the year. Some of these amulets are to be brought back to the shrine the next year and burned. People pay to have this service performed as well. How is that for a business model? Sell your customer something and then charge them in a year to destroy the product. When they come back to have last year’s goods burned, you sell them the same product again for the next year and the cycle repeats. Nice.
For 2010 the giant ema featured a tiger since it was the year of the tiger. I’m guessing that for 2011 a similar ema with a rabbit was on the gate since 2011 is the year of the rabbit.
Meiji Jingu on New Year’s Day
I have braved the New Year’s Day crowds at Meiji Jingu twice in my life–1989 and 2010. The place and number of people don’t seem to have changed. The crowd control measures sure have.
Hatsumode (初詣) is the name of this first shrine visit of the new year. Technically, this wasn’t my first shrine visit in 2010 as I was at Zojoji much earlier in the day.
Farewell 2010
Goodbye 2010. I thoroughly enjoyed your rich taste in relaxing time!
Balloon release party
Today’s photo is a close up of what could be seen in yesterday’s entry. The sign says the balloon (fuusen or 風船) distribution (haifu or 配布) is this way.
For a video of the releasing of the balloons a while later, click here.