Happy Turkey Day!

Chad has been on a business trip in China this week and ended up flying back on Thanksgiving.  Fortunately, I received a kind invitation from some fellow American expats to enjoy a real American Thanksgiving with them.  They invited a few of their new Japanese friends as well and we made a night of it.   Considering where we find ourselves this year, I was very thankful to find myself surrounded by friends and American food.

FYI, the only way you can get a turkey here is to order it --- and it will be imported.  Turkey isn't a popular meat here at all, although I can get tiny packs of sliced turkey sandwich meat at the supermarket.  Cranberry sauce has to be ordered as well, and it must be done far advance as it will sell out.  I actually saw a box of StoveTop stuffing in the imported food store in the mall and you can order it as well.  Pumpkin, pecans and green beans are hard to come across here but potatos, corn and other vegetables are plentiful.  I contributed an apple pie to the festivities and made it from scratch (got a tub of shortening at the imported food store) as I didn't think there was any hope of finding a pre-made crust.  I was wrong though, during dinner I learned that you can get pre-made crusts here--the packaging is just a little different.  So it's a little harder to do Thanksgiving properly here but certainly not impossible.

And Chad made it home in time for us to see a little bit of the Macy's parade---at 11pm.  ;)

Neighborhood Shrines/Temples, Part I

Today is another national public holiday here, Labor Thanksgiving Day.  As the name would indicate, it is kind of a combination of Labor Day and Thanksgiving.  Minus the turkey and Pilgrims.  I was advised to stay away from the mall today so it appears as if shopping is again a popular way to celebrate, although I hear there are some festivals here and there.   Everyone is supposed to give thanks to one another and think about peace and productivity and so on....

Anyway, a long time ago it was just a harvest festival which leads me to the shrine part of the post.  A few days ago I was looking at our neighborhood on GoogleMaps.  I noticed that the mysterious Shinto shrine a block over from our house was actually on the map.  With a name and everything.   If you recall, Chad and I found it the first week we were here but at the time we just gaped at it cluelessly.  I photographed it, sketched it once and then forgot about it.

Japanese roof tiles are fun to draw

Before I continue, if you want to know more about Shinto, go here and read about the shrines, which I think is more interesting than the page about the religion in general.  In a tiny nutshell, it's heavy on nature worship and not big on proselytizing. 

At any rate, finding this shrine on the map inspired me to visit it again.  And after much mental exertion I managed to translate the name of it ( 賀茂神社), to roughly kamo jinja or rather "celebrate thick growth shrine".  Thus, I believe it to be dedicated to praying for, and celebrating, plentiful harvests.  For the record, I haven't ever seen anyone at this shrine and it looks a little unloved.  There is litter around and it's in need of some repair. 

it says the name of the shrine.....more or less

I think this is an empty temizuya, typically full of
water to clean your mouth and hands before entering.
and I think those are tourou, or stone lanterns, behind it

massha/sessha (extra mini-shrines) off to the side--
also notice the picturesque laundry in the background.

this warehouse looking building off to the side
doesn't look like part of it but this says (roughly)
"shrine duties place" so perhaps it is the admin. offices

I think this is a komainu (lion-dog shrine guardian)
on the roof although usually they are on the ground
by the entrance. 

this is the main building.  above the door is the name of the shrine again.  I
tried translating some of the green banners but my brain locked down before
I could make much of it out.

Oh, and I named this post "part I" because I intend to eventually explore a few others that I've discovered within bicycling distance of our house. ;)

Things I've Purchased: Anything With Totoro On It

I am a sucker for anything with Totoro on it.  Fortunately, I don't find such things very often.  For those of you who don't know who Totoro is, he's the big gray creature in the cartoon movie I posted about here.  He's kind of like Winnie-the-Pooh for Japanese children (although actual Winnie has made it over here too) and I enjoyed his trippy little movie.

"Hey, let's go, hey, let's go...."

As you can see, I have a fishing Totoro 2012 calendar, a Totoro keychain, and no, that is not a Totoro washcloth.  It is a tiny hand towel.  I had to go purchase a bunch of these tiny hand towels (you can find them everywhere) for both Chad and myself.  See, public restrooms here never have paper towels available and often don't even have hand dryers.  Instead everyone carries around their own little towel to dry their hands.  I just happened to come across one with Totoro on it.  And I'm not the only sucker---Chad bought us both T-shirts on the Internet that have the Neko Basu (cat bus) from the movie on them. ;)

a whole shelf of Totoro in the Shinjuku Tokyu Hands store