Rice and Ramen

Last weekend I went to a Japanese festival for the first time in a while, the Kanamara Matsuri. Also known as the Festival of the Steel Phallus. Also also known, more colloquially, as "The Penis Festival." The Kanamara Matsuri is held annually on the first Sunday of April. I actually almost went last year, but Easter was the same day so I elected to go to church at an Episcopal church here in Tokyo, Saint Alban's, instead. This year, with Easter falling so late in the month, there was no such conflict and so together with Troy, who  had gone last year , I headed down to Kawasaki to see what was...up... But before I really dig into the festival itself, I think some context is necessary. The Kanamara Matsuri tends to be lumped into the "wow look at Japan, it's so weird!" mindset. A quick Google search for "Kanamara festival" brings up articles titled "Kanamara Penis Festival Exposed" (some YouTube channel called Only in Japan) or "...

It surprises me sometimes how we miss the things closest to us.  When I was here for six months in high school I lived in Sayama-shi, in Saitama Prefecture. Every day I rode the Seibu-Shinjuku Line to and from school, and I became fairly familiar with the various stops, even the ones I never had occasion to go to, such as Hon-Kawagoe. So I was pleasantly surprised (although perhaps I shouldn't have been) that when heading to Kawagoe I would, in fact, be heading to the Hon-Kawagoe area. Go figure, but, it was slightly nostalgic for me--I don't exactly have much reason to head to Saitama on a day to day basis anymore.  Kawagoe is also known as " Little Edo " for the number of Edo Period (1603-1868) buildings that have been preserved, lining several of the main streets. Troy and I arrived during their Spring Festival, so there were plenty of  koinobori , or carp streamers, hung in honor of Children's Day, which falls on May 5th. The koi are supposed to repre...

All hail Japan's ridiculous number (17) of national holidays.  Golden Week (GW)--the roughly week-long period of sequential national holidays from April 29 to early May-- is a popular (and expensive; I wouldn't recommend timing your trip to Japan for this particular week) time to travel in Japan, but it does give you a large chunk of guilt-free time to explore the country. For me it was just an excellent perk of working here--a week of days off that I didn't have to spend any PTO to get-- but I know that for some Japanese employees this is one of their only vacation periods throughout the year. Train tickets, hotels, and other activities that require pre-purchased tickets for GW sell out well in advance, their prices unsurprisingly jacked-up for the occasion.  While it would have been nice to make a trek to Hokkaido or Kyushu, both of which are rather far-afield of Tokyo, I didn't quite have the foresight (or funding, if I'm being honest) for an excursion of ...