Asakusa Samba Parade

Asakusa is part of the “low city” of Tokyo located on the Sumida River in the northeast section of central Tokyo. Its origins date back pre-Edo period, and naturally, this district holds some interesting bits of history and sights to see. However, today is not the day to discuss those.

Today was the day to experience the 32nd annual Carnival Parade which celebrates Brazilian Samba music. Like the Azabujuban festival last week, lots of foreign visitors and locals alike, hit the streets for the festivities. Unlike last week, there were only a few food booths lining the parade route; most of the energy was around the 35K samba dancers and parade floats. One of which can be seen below:

Frank Lloyd Wright: Imperial Hotel

The Tokyo American Club is located in central Tokyo and occupies land that was previously home to the Imperial Hotel (#2), that stood 1919-1968. It was the most famous design by Frank Lloyd Wright in Tokyo.

Part of the hotel has been recreated in the Museum Meiji Mura near Nagoya. This small monument, outside of the entrance to TAC, is all that remains on the original site.

Azabujuban

Today we ventured out to the Azabu Juban Summer Night Festival 2013. The celebration mostly consisted of booths of food, ranging from sausages to octopi on a stick. The booths were set up along one street six blocks long along with other connecting streets. The festival goes on for two nights, each night drawing a large crowd, resulting in very minimum walking space in certain popular areas. The booths that were not serving food had toys, fish (for pets), or clothes.

Lovely Dog Flowers

We were walking in Ginza the other day and came across these flower-dogs. They had glasses and bows, as you can see they are very expensive 140 US dollars per dog. They are made really well. The shop they are in is very petite and cute. They also had other flower arrangements, more usual ones.

かわいい

We’ve added a new word to our Japanese vocabulary. Written in hiragana above, it is pronounced kawaī (か-ka わ-wa いい-ī, like the Hawaiian island). Means “cute.” Xeno seems to think it means “come here, I will pet you.”

Japanese Pear Ice Cream

Japanese pear ice cream, is new at 7-eleven, it is creamy but not quite ice cream. It has the texture of creamy gelato. It tastes like a Japanese pear. A Japanese pear it a little bit more tart than a regular pear but just enough to notice, and based on the picture, a Japanese pear is shaped like an apple but has the same texture and color as a regular pear. 

Ark Hills

If you walk up the street (the cherry blossom road) about 2 minutes or so, you will run into a Mori building complex known as Ark Hills. It houses apartments, offices, a concert hall, TV Asahi offices, a heliport, and several restaurants. A few of those restaurants have patio dining that allow “special guests.”

Tonight we ate at “plates” for the first time. Salads, pasta and pizza. Delicious.

Never in the U.S.

On today’s walk we came across another item for the “Never in the U.S.” file. Yep, that is a public vending machine on a random street selling beer and mixed drinks.

And, just in case that is not enough, right next to it is a cigarette machine…one quick stop for your alcohol and tobacco.

Xeno is home.

He is doing well: alert and curious, and very hungry! And, mostly well behaved.

Good to go…

…just waiting for the next flight to Tokyo!