Upon arriving in Japan nearly nine months ago and seeing the countless, cheap restaurants in the neighborhood I vowed to never visit one twice (in order to experience a larger percentage of them). I have not been able to stick to my goal however and have frequented about four or five places more than once.

One place that I’ve been to, three times now, is Kao Tai near Takadanobaba Station. The selection (and quality) have been different each time ranging from good to great. It’s the only place I’ve been to that always has foreigners inside. Sometimes as many as half the customers will be non-Japanese.

The food is better than the above photo may indicate. On any given day there are seven or eight different dishes to choose from.

The price can’t be beat. Only 780 yen for an all-you-can eat lunch. The address is 高田馬場 2-14-6, which is east of the station, just off of Waseda Dori on the north side. Look for a Thai Viking Lunch sign (not the one above which is right in front of the restaurant–not on Waseda Street) pointing you down the correct alley. I don’t remember if the sign is in English or katakana–probably a bit of both.

Posted on May 9th, 2010 under Japan, Thailand. Tags: food, signs. Comments Off on Kao Tai カオタイ

For Tuesday of Golden Week we decided to follow Walk #36, Jogashima Park, in A Flower Lover’s Guide To Tokyo. May isn’t the right time for any of the suggested flowers (narcissus in January and February, hydrangea in June, and nokanzo wild day lilies in July), but we saw lots of flowers and had a great time anyway. I wouldn’t suggest going during Golden Week or on a Sunday, as things can be crowded. A weekday would be really nice though.

The above photo is of one of the two lighthouses on the island, Awazaki Lighthouse (安房埼灯台).

The above picture is of the southern shore.

On the train on the way home we saw a train advertisement for a special pass. I’m not sure if it was a permanent offer or short-time deal, but be sure to check with Keikyu (京急) if you decide to visit Jogashima. We paid about 2,900 yen each for round-trip transportation from Tokyo. The package was for about the same price; we could have had the train paid for, unlimited bus rides (which can run up to 400 yen each), a meal (featuring the area’s famous raw tuna (maguro)), and an onsen soak.

They also had a burger deal from Tokyo to Yokosuka which would be a great deal if you needed to go to Yokosuka from Tokyo anyway.

Posted on May 8th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: beach, flower lovers guide to tokyo, jogashima. Comments Off on Jogashima 城ヶ島

It’s time to finally wrap up this series on the Takeda Shingen Festival I went to in Kofu last month. I’ll probably share some more photos from my day in Kofu later, but not in the near future.

I waited around with many other people for about an hour for the promised fireworks. They were to be fired off from the top of the castle site. Very cool I thought. However, the firework show lasted less than 1 minute. I kid you not. I’ve witnessed longer fireworks after home runs at baseball games.

The wait could have been worse were it not for all of the typical Japanese festival food available. What would you like? Yakisoba? Ramen? Takoyaki? Kakigori? Okonomiyaki? Udon? Yakitori?

Posted on May 6th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: festivals, fireworks, food, kofu, matsuri, night photography. Comments Off on Wrapping up the Takeda Shingen Festival

Just some night shot sample photos with the Panasonic TZ10 (DSC-ZS7 in the USA) by request from this entry. For the first photo I opened the shutter for half a second and didn’t use flash. This was a handheld shot. I don’t have a tripod and there was nothing nearby to place the camera on.

The second picture is with flash. The background is blurry because we were on the Rainbow Bridge which was shaking.

Posted on May 5th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: odaiba. Comments Off on TZ10 flash and no flash night photography with people

In English, one would probably call this a parade. In Japanese 軍団出陣 implies the soldiers are heading to the front lines of battle, and such is the nature of the Takeda Shingen Parade. The loudspeaker calls out which regiment is summoned to the front lines as dramatic music plays through the streets.

You may remember the guy on horseback in the top photo from this earlier picture.

If it weren’t for the thousands of people in modern dress watching, and the retail outlets surrounding the scene, your imagination could take you back a few hundred years to the actual events. The Shingen Ko Matsuri (Takeda Shingen Festival or 信玄公祭り) is your next best thing to a time machine.

Posted on May 5th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: kofu, people. Comments Off on 甲州軍団出陣 Off to battle