Meiji Jingu, Harajuku and Ikebukuro (Sat 2/13)

Got up, and it was snowing again. It ended up snowing all day long, but it was never cold enough to accumulate. I decided that I'd go somewhere that might look nice in the snow, so I headed over to Meiji Jingu in Yoyogi.









Then I wandered around Harajuku, had some tea and toast at a little tea house off the beaten path, and I practiced some shuji (calligraphy) while I relaxed there for a bit.

While I was wandering around, I saw a familiar site in Omotesando. Someone was taking a picture for bijin tokei (babe clock).



I walked over to Yoyogi park to see that nothing was going on, but I saw some people congregated across the street around the sports stadium. I walked over and they had a big set up for showing the Olympics outside on a big screen TV. I got there 10 minutes before the torch lighting of the opening ceremony, so I stuck around and saw that. Then I walked the rest of the way around the stadium and took a train back to Ikebukuro. I took a break in the hotel, and then went back over to Sunshine City mall to grab some dinner.

First I dropped by a Book Off and bought a couple of childrens books (that seemed to be about my level of understanding). Once I got to the mall, I sat down for a while and read.

I saw an unagi (eel) place. I ordered a glass of sake and when the lady brought it, she put a glass into a little box, poured the glass until it started spilling over, and then proceeded to fill the box from the overflow. One might wonder why they don't just give a bigger glass, but the presentation is kinda nice to give the feeling of giving the customer much more than expected.



Then I got takosu (たこ酢), which is octopus, cucumber and vinegar as an appetizer.



And I ordered what they call the Shinobazujuu (不忍重) set, which came with tsukemono (palette cleansers like takuan, pickled carrots, etc), miso soup with a snail and fish cake in it, a plate with a bunch of random bites of various things, a few pieces of sashimi (of which I ate a few before thinking to take a picture), and of course a giant plate of unagi on rice. The thing that was wrapped in a leaf in the plate of random stuff was really good. I asked the waitress what it was called and she said fumanju (ふうまんじゅう?).







Then I got some green tea / red bean ice (not ice cream, I think, because it said 牛乳、卵　完全不使用 which means, I'm pretty sure, that there's no milk or egg in it)



I'm writing this on Sunday morning (2/14 .. Valentine's day), and the sun is out for the first time, so I gotta finish this up and get out there.

Here's a link to the whole photo set for today.