Between our apartment and Waseda University lies 水稲荷神社, an Inari Shinto Shrine I like to stroll about. As mentioned previously, Inari shrines are famous for their foxes. The above is one of the many foxes (kitsune) on the premises.

In most udon shops one of the kinds of udon you can order is kitsune udon, which looks like the above. Kitsune udon features 油揚げ(あぶらあげ or sweetened, fried tofu). It’s one of my favorites.

If “fox udon” isn’t for you then try “raccoon dog udon” (otherwise known as tanuki udon). Instead of 油揚げ, you’ll get 天かす (tempura batter).

I don’t know why these animal names have been given to the various udon varieties, but it is fun ordering a different animal every time to see the different toppings that arrive with your new selection.

Posted on September 13th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: food, kitsune, shinto, udon. Comments Off on Kitsune Shrines and Kitsune Udon

When you think of wildlife in a big city not much comes to mind outside of the zoo. Well, maybe you think of rats and cockroaches, but we haven’t seen either of those in Tokyo. (I saw lots of cockroaches when I lived in Tokyo 20 years ago, but my dwellings at the time were pretty grim too.)

At the nearby park, 甘泉園公園, there are tons of spiders. This park is immaculate. Everything is in perfect order except the spiders and their webs. I’m guessing the grounds keeper has either given up on the spiders or just likes them. It does add a certain charm to the place.

We’ve seen lots of other little (and not so little) critters running about, like this beetle.

This lizard had no problem posing for a photograph, but what made him really cool was where he was…

…perched on a stone torii gate in the middle of a Shinto shrine (Mizu Inari Jinja to be exact).

I’ve heard a lot more from this last bug than I have had the chance to see. I’ve only seen a few, but it seems like I’ve heard millions by now. These are the ubiquitous semi (cicada) that fill the summer air with their cries.

Posted on September 12th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: insects, living things, macro, shinto, torii, 甘泉園公園. Comments Off on Japanese critters

A couple days a week I teach a class south of Tokyo at Atsugi Naval Air Facility. The first couple times I was there were really strange as once you enter the gate everything changes–the language, the customs, the layout, the people, the currency, everything. It’s really no different than entering a very foreign country except that you are just walking a few feet rather than getting on a plane for 10+ hours.

The torii gate, in the above picture and just inside the base, is one of the few remaining signs that you are still in a foreign country.

The answer to the quiz from a couple of days ago can be seen below. Just outside the gate for the military base are these four vending machines. The one second from the left takes U.S. Dollars and serves up U.S. goods while the other three take Japanese Yen and serve up Japanese goods.

Surprising, to me, is that once you leave the base (other than this one vending machine) there doesn’t seem to be any businesses trying to cater to Americans. There are no bars, brothels, souvenir shops, or other establishments in the base area that I can see that are trying to entice the military personnel to frequent them. There are no signs in English, and the area looks like any other neighborhood in Japan.

Posted on September 11th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: torii. Comments: 6

竹下通り in 原宿 on a Sunday is interesting to see once. I can’t imagine wanting to ever walk down it again though–at least not in the heat and humidity that we encountered on this day.

You can pretty much point your camera in any direction while in Harajuku and be able to photograph something interesting.

I pointed mine at the sky and a blimp flew by.

We picked up Maya’s birthday present in Harajuku at a place called Kiddy Land. I asked Maya if she went to Harajuku (or Shinjuku or Takadanobaba) much. She said she hopes to go there someday which surprised me. We go through Harajuku nearly daily as foreigners living in Tokyo, yet a Tokyo native who lives 20 minutes to the east has never been there. Sure she is only 11, but it reminded me that we frequently miss the things in our own backyard.

As a kid who grew up just across the bay from San Francisco I remember thinking how rarely we ever went to San Francisco.

Posted on September 10th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buildings, harajuku, people, Tokyo. Comments: 2

Vending machines are everywhere in Japan. Instead of seeing one, every once in while, like in the states you’ll see three or four of them lined up nearly any place you turn to look. This set of four is a bit unusual though. Take a close look, and if you can figure out where this picture was taken from, post a comment with your guess.

I’ll let you know the answer in a couple of days.

Posted on September 9th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: food, jidohanbaiki. Comments: 4