Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Tokyo Solo Twenty-Four-Oh: Day 6 - Showa and Shopping (edited for formatting)

 I woke up at a decent hour this morning, but today was no day for lollygagging as the hotel was going to be "testing the power" which meant the power was going to be off from noon-1:00pm. That still have me plenty of time to take a shower, get ready, and write a blog post, but I was still cutting it close by leaving at 11:15!


Today I decided to visit Shibamata, an older town with many Showa-era (1926-1989) stores, treats, and cafes, as well as an amazing Buddhist Temple Taishakuten (Daikyō-ji). 

Taking just two trains on the Keisei line, and just 50 minutes outside of Tokyo, you know you've arrived to the right place when leaving the small train station you are greeted by Tora-san.
"Otoko wa Tsurai yo (男はつらいよ, It's Tough Being a Man) is a Japanese film series starring Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajirō Kuruma, whose nickname is Tora-san (寅さん), a kind-hearted vagabond who is always unlucky in love. "

Tora-san is much beloved by the older generation in Japan and you'll find a lot of posters and merchandise catering to his fans. 

I was about to go into a local penny candy store (dagashiya) when I was hit with one heck of a bloody nose! Luckily I was able to scramble into an unseen corner in an alley and grab my tissues. While it hasn't been super cold, it has been pretty dry. 

With that crisis over, I made my way to the Shibamata sandō which is a street lined with little shops and restaurants and booths with things to snack on as you make your way to the temple. 

I started with the local recommendation kusa-dango. A ball of rice mochi mixed with yomogi or kusa grass/root, it is said to be bitter like green tea. They slather anko sweet bean paste on top to add some sweetness. I honestly didn't think it was bitter at all and really tasty! The shop put the dango on a little tray with some hot tea to enjoy on a little bench in front of their shop. I enjoyed it!


I was enticed at another shop that sold senbei individually from jars or in packages, so I took one for 80yen. It tasted like senbei, lol, which is tasty and salty, but I really needed a drink after it.

The sandō isn't very long so I quickly came to the gates to Taishakuten. The temple entry is standard, it's what's behind the temple that you pay 400 yen to see. 10 panels of wood carved out in a 3D sculpture but evoking movement and storytelling as well as any masterpiece illustration or painting. Each panel represents a teaching or story or moral from the teachings of Buddhism, but it's also framed with panels of the zodiac and heavenly beings above and birds and nature below. Plenty of birds and dragons to keep me amazed and in love! 







Also, some Buddhist wisdom that struck me as still relevant:



Your 400 yen also gives you access to the garden behind the temple as well and it was radiant in fall colors! 






It wasn't that busy at all so I was able to take my time with everything.

This was the main attraction for Shibamata so it was time to head back to the train station. I was hungry and really hadn't had much to eat yet so I stopped in a restaurant that had yummy chaha fried rice on display, so I had some of that (which is what I really wanted a few days ago in Nakano but it ended up being teppanyaki instead, but I still craved the fried rice). It was exactly what I wanted! 


I held off on dessert because my one last stop was a cafe.

Showa cafe Sepia is a retro cafe that has the feel of eating in a place designed and lived in by a 11 yeast old girl in the 1970s. Dolls and records and stationary and fashion magazines line the walls and decorate corners in staged nostalgia! 




There was even an entire unused kitchen full of play kitchen toys!




I ordered myself a purin and a melon cream soda. The cream soda was delicious! The pudding...eh. But that's okay because everything was adorable and I had fun listening to a woman and her friend' joyful exclamations and laughter at the oishii food and kawaii decorations. 



Upstairs, the lady (owner?) said was the largest collection of Candy Candy memorabilia, owned by a Mister Candy, who loved dressing as his favorite character. He often was there on weekends to talk to the customers. It was impressive! 



Good for him!

After finishing there it was about 3:00 so I took the train to Ikebukuro to do a little otome anime shopping. I hit up the main (and largest) Animate store, all the K Books, some Lashinbangs, and a Mandarake. I bought a few doujinshi (this year's pairing that I found that interested me was Eddie and Venom. LOL, I swear I can never find the pairings of last Japan visits, but always find something new at the last minute), a bunch of Card Captor Sakura trinkets that weren't majorly jacked up on price, and maybe a thing or two for Jeff. All this shopping brought me to the stores' closing time of 8:00pm.

I ambled back home to my hotel, picked up a salad and Famichiki on the way, and ended my day there. Good night!
















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