Tokyo Solo Twenty-Four-Oh: Day 8 - Lucky Cat Temple

 Waking up this morning I was hungry, and I knew exactly what I was craving on this chilly morning. Something warm, a little spicy, and flavorful:

Ichiran tonkotsu ramen! The breakfast of champions!

I was so happy to finally have an appetite for it! I think if I don't start moving forward my sleep times a week ahead I don't give my appetite time to shift. Jet lag hasn't been terrible, waking up at 5 or 6am and going to sleep around 9 or 10pm, and I did my best a couple days before I left with an app, but it wasn't as intense a sleep-shift as I usually do a week before, and I think that really helps you have more of an appetite during appropriate meal times while in Japan. Ah well....

This morning's plan was to take a train ride about an hour outside of Tokyo to the birthplace of the Maneki Neko, the good luck, beckoning cat: Gotoku-ji Temple! "One legend starts with a cat born at the Gōtoku-ji temple in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo during the Edo period (1603–1868). According to temple historians, while hunting with falcons, the daimyo (regional ruler) Ii Naotaka was saved from a lightning bolt when the abbot’s pet cat Tama beckoned him into Gōtoku-ji.

Grateful to the cat for saving his life, the ruler made it a patron of the temple where it has been venerated in its very own shrine ever since."

Good job little cat!

The walk from the station was a very easy and pleasant 20 minute stroll through this suburban town. Lots of newly-built Japanese houses and a market street for the first 10 minutes out of the station. I haven't been talking about the weather because every day has been PERFECT! Sunny, not humid (actually, pretty dry), a chilly 45 in the mornings warming up to 58 by the afternoon. Every day has been like this! And every photograph at every park and temple has been stunning with sunlight illuminating the peak, fall foliage. Marvel at the beauty of Gotoku-ji's landscape:

And now, for the main attraction, the large collection of Lucky Cat statues that line two paths toward the main temple:

I love the pose of the saint in this statue; he has his head on his hand like "Oh heck, what am I going to do with all these cats?! Oh well, at least they're cute."

At the temple you can buy your own lucky cat, sold in 5 different sizes and sold out of all but the smallest one! LOL, I bet you can guess what I bought then. I also got a goshuin stamp. Alas, I don't have a picture of either of them since the cat is safely wrapped up. You can have this picture of me I got a fellow, English-speaking gaijin to take for me:

Nya~n!

And also this selfie:

NYAA~AAN!

I didn't buy any ema, but here's a picture of what they look like. Very cute!

Since I was west of Tokyo, I took this chance to take the train to Shibuya rather back to Ueno so I could hit up three large store chains that have EVERYTHING, good quality, but not super cheap like Donki: Tokyu Hands (now just Hands), LOFT, and Muji. Muji was just because I'd never been in one before and a lot of one-bagging travel item recs come from Muji. I wasn't aware it was pretty much just Japanese IKEA!

LOFT and Hands are just department stores with about 6 floors of everything. I found a few great gifts at LOFT and some cat toys for (hopefully) future adopted fur babies! Also, gotta keep with the cat theme of the day! Speaking of cat-themed, this card at LOFT cracked me up. Classic example of Japanese people just throwing English on items. They're a lot better now with Engrish, but still, they use strange phrases or funny little stories that just don't really make sense on the product. I guess this one makes a little sense, but it still made me laugh:

After all that shopping, it was about 4:30pm and I was actually hungry for a SECOND time that day! Woohoo! I was craving more sushi and there was a Sushiro near the Shibuya station. This time I chose counter, rather than table, and got a seat right away! It was much better that way. Best sushi's this time were the pickled tuna nigiri, the omurice nigiri, and the chicken mayo nigiri. Mmmmm.

I headed back to the hotel and after dropping off my purchases decided to do a nice, long, 2 hour session of karaoke. I came in prepared, having made a check list of what I wanted to sing so there was no dilly dallying! LOL! It was perfect and a fun way to end the night. Man I love Japanese karaoke!

Then it was 9:00 so I went to the hotel and went to sleep! Tomorrow will be the last day in Japan, so I think I'm gonna just spend it shopping for any last minute gifts or souvenirs. I probably won't have time to make another post as I'm planning to get to the airport by 7am. I'll try and do a follow-up post with my usual observations, awards, likes and dislikes from this trip!

おつかれさまでした!