Peach Coke!

Meiji Shrine

Torii Gate

One of the most popular shrines in Tokyo is Meiji Shrine, which is located within a 170 acre forest in the middle of the city. The shrine was built in 1921 in memory of Emperor Meiji who passed away in 1912. The walk to the shrine is beautiful, as the gravel path winds through the forest. Along the way, you pass through several gigantic torii gates and can view sake and wine barrels that have been donated to the shrine from around the world. Emperor Meiji is an extremely respected Japanese leader because he paved the way for Japan's modernization and combining eastern and western cultures. During his reign, he wore western style clothing and adopted western aspects of every day life, including often eating western foods. He had a love for French wine (hence the donated wine barrels) and established a strong friendship between Japan and France.

Sake Barrels

Wine Barrels

Candy

Konpeito

There is a candy shop here in town that has a lot of unique goodies. They have a lot of dagashi, which is Japanese penny candy that was super popular in the '50s. While no longer a penny, they are still very cheap, ranging from .10-.50 cents. I picked up some konpeito, which is possibly Japan's oldest candy. It's just balls of colorful sugar, and they were brought to Japan by the Portuguese in the early 1700s. Some other fun candies I picked up are tomato and cherry gummies (these are so good!), little candies that link together like puzzle pieces, and hard candies that you can whistle through (very fun or very annoying, depending on your view).

Whistle Candy

This candy box looks just like the trains we ride every day!

Busa Kawa

I got these two stationery sets today because they are just TOO AWESOME! These literally made me laugh out loud when I saw them in the store.

Keep Telling Yourself That

Amazing notebook I bought today!

Beauties!

Cats

Feral cats are everywhere in Japan. Here is a group of them that roam our street. They have all been fixed, which you can tell by their clipped ears.

Stickers

I love photographing neat graffiti and stickers posted around town. Placing crazy stickers everywhere seems to be more popular than painted graffiti.

WHAT

This ad was posted in a train. I have no idea what is happening. Great prompt for creative writing, though.

Nowadays

This is a good example of how Japan mixes modern times with ancient tradition. Shinto is the native religion of Japan, dating back thousands of years. Here is a shinto shrine in Tokyo nestled among skyscrapers. This is extremely common. Sacred areas like temples and shrines are usually built around instead of moved or torn down.

Ms. Miho-san

Found a couple of interesting listings on this mall directory in Tokyo. After shopping you can visit the chiropractor and have your palm read!

Guilt Trip

An adorable bag found at 7-11. So cute, yet so sad!

Lemon Coke

Pull Up A Head

While walking around our neighborhood, we ran across these concrete animal heads - they are seats!

Hello!

Fun clips we found clipped on the outside of someone's window. These are meant to hang laundry, but this use is cute too!