May 28, 2013

Tomb Raider

Back when we first arrived and I was looking for local things to do and see I found mention of some burial mounds nearby.  I enthusiastically thought "Oh, wow, burial mounds-- that'll be neat to go see!".  Shortly thereafter I realized that they were very close to our house and, in fact, were right across the street from the mall.

Cut to two years later.  Last Thursday, I think it was, I wearily thought "Geez, I've got to come up with something to get us out of the house this afternoon.  Maybe I'll go see if there is actually anything at those hills across from the mall."

So, <ahem> here goes:

These two burial mounds date from about the 5th century AD.  They're called "kofun" and the period they are from is sometimes called the Kofun Period because many of these types of mounds were built then.  The Kofun period is the earliest recorded era in the history of Japan. 

These particular mounds are called the Tenjin'yama and according to Wikipedia some terracotta figurines (called haniwa) were found here and are the only haniwa to be designated as national treasures. 

The mounds are right in the middle of a commercial area.  Here is one....

exciting, no?


 And standing in the same spot (a 7Eleven parking lot) but turned the opposite direction...

squint and you can see a McDonalds

There was a sign and a little statue but the sign was faded and all in Japanese.


it probably says "Why are you standing here looking at these dumb hills when
you could be at the mall with everyone else?"

I couldn't find an easy way to climb them, although now that I think of it, that might've been rude.  They're surrounded by rice paddies and ditches that I wasn't brave enough to jump with a baby strapped to my chest.

yep, it's a hill alright

Here's the other one after I drove around and around it trying to see if there was any identifiable path to the top.  There was not.
they do stand out because they are tree covered. 
concrete or rice paddy is the groundcover of choice here.
So, another local landmark checked off the list.  Better late than never, right?


May 22, 2013

Harajuku & Yoyogi Park

I just realized that it's been almost a month since my last post!  Sorry about that.  Time got away from me.  Anyway, this past weekend we went to Tokyo for a couple of nights.  The main purpose of the trip was to experiment with ways to get Cora to sleep in a hotel room.  (We were pretty successful-- throwing a sheet over her crib like she was a canary helped a lot.)

We had a couple of ideas of what to do while we were there but they all fell through until we ended up walking from our hotel in Shinjuku to the area known as Harajuku.  (Incidentally we walked because the train we were going to take was delayed by 20 minutes---virtually unheard of in Tokyo!)

The Harajuku area is pretty famous....if any of you are Gwen Stefani fans you might remember it as a big inspiration in one of her solo albums.  A lot of kids hang out in Harajuku and wear crazy clothes and costumes.  (According to Wikipedia "goth" and "California girl" are two styles that are popular.)  There are also a lot of shops that cater to the kids and their street fashion.

Sunday is the day that the kids are out and about so since we were there on Saturday afternoon we didn't see too many wacky getups.  But we did walk down Takeshita Street and check out some of the shops.

takeshita street



some getups, huh?


a little busy for me


more Harajuku shopping

Overall, Harajuku wasn't quite what I was expecting.  It was pretty touristy--there was even a stand with brochures at the entrance to Takeshita Street.  I was expecting a little more edgy and avant-garde and instead it reminded me a little of one of those streets in a beach town where you can get your hair wrapped or get henna-tattooed.  It was also unusually ethnically diverse for Japan and possibly a little skeevy.  Although it occurs to me that perhaps I am just old. :/

On the way to Harajuku we walked through Yoyogi Park, which I thought was a neat spot to find in the middle of the city.  There is a famous shrine (Meiji Jingu) in the middle of the park but we just skirted the edge.

a torii at the entrance to Yoyogi Park
you wouldn't think you were in the middle of Tokyo
I was also surprised to realize just how close all this was to one of my favorite shopping spots, Omotesando, which I blogged about here.  I knew it wasn't far, but it turned out to be very walkable.  The proximity of Yoyogi Park, Omotesando and Harajuku definitely make this one of my favorite areas of the city.   I hope to come back on a Sunday and see the Harajuku kids so maybe you'll get to see some more one day!
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