A few days ago I found myself in the Kiyosumi neighborhood, an area on the far East side of Tokyo, with my fearless companion Troy (his blog is HERE if anyone is interested). To some of you long-time readers the name "Troy" might sound somewhat familiar and that is because Troy and I met in Japan six years ago when we were both exchange students with AFS! I went to find a photo of us from then, just for the comparison, but after seeing what I looked like (have I ever mentioned that I gained approximately 15 pounds when I lived in Japan the first time? No? I wonder why...) I think I'll pass on that front. Have this picture of the view over the river in Kiyosumi instead:
Our Kiyosumi day basically consisted of walking around the quaint neighborhood and popping into interesting stores. The first was a local chocolate shop called Artichoke Chocolate. I had the most divine raspberry hot chocolate that, to my knowledge, contained no artichokes whatsoever.
It did have this amazing chocolate toucan sculpture in the window, however.
The rest of Kiyosumi is quiet, by Tokyo standards, and has a lot of quaint shops. Quaint shops in Japan usually necessitate interesting signage, like these fiendish looking cats and weirdly sparkly chickens:
We also kept running across these (honestly) creepy scarecrow-like things basically crucified to telephone poles near intersections. Some of them were new and looked merely unsettling, but a few were all worn-out and saggy and dirty--altogether beyond the bounds of "weird" and into the realm of "terrifying."
Like...what's with the panda that has a bunch of panda stickers attached to its stomach? Also the wrathful red Buddhist icon behind it...
In more benevolent Buddha news, we also stumbled across one of the "Edo Six Jizoes;" this particular statue sits in the main courtyard of Reiganji. They were erected in 1717 to commemorate the miraculous recovery of Jizo Monk Shogen from his incurable disease. Of the original six only five remain--one was destroyed during the Anti-Buddhist movement in the beginning of the Meiji Period. Apparently this one has "longer nails on the hands" than the others...
Finally we stopped in a shop I had on recommendation from a Tokyo friend called Cheese no Koe, which translates to "The Voice of Cheese." This store specializes in products--wine, beer, milk, crackers, soft-serve ice cream, and cheese--from Hokkaido. I hadn't had proper cheese in months (Japanese supermarkets don't really DO cheese) so I splurged on a 100g chunk of some mild hard cheese that I promptly ate with crackers and jam when I got home.
The store has a really cool window:
Also, because I have to include at least one photo of me now that I have friends here to actually take photos of me, here's what I look like when I think about cheese:
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