Tokyo (3)

On Sunday we went to Meiji shrine which is the premier Shinto shrine in Tokyo. There was an extraordinary ceremony going on. People were bringing dolls, little dolls, huge dolls, dressed in traditional costume and handing them over to the priests who wrere organising a display of them. It was labelled 'THANKS DOLLS'. One priest is shown working his way through a pile of bags but there were six priests doing the same in various other places.

There were a number of weddings going on and a lot of posing for photographers. Each group had a middle aged lady who tweaked the kimonos, re-tied bows, rearranged feet!! In this photo, they were just rearranging themselves. I wanted to show the kimonos. You can just see the bride in white with a white hood over her head.

And a couple of small exuberant family members waiting (not very patiently) for their turn. 

We walked round the large gardens attached to this shrine. Very full of people. Lots of picnics, a live jazz band, a group of people practising a play, lots of runners, babies in prams. We then walked across the road into a district famed for being the place for the young to hang out and show off their outfits. Quite extraordinary. Vignettes were

- teenager in Little Bo-peep outfit. Pale blue crinoline skirt to midcalf, white socks, pastel blue shows with  buttoned straps, white top, pale blue shawl - and an enormous poke bonnet. Two bright red patches on her cheeks

- teenager with white ankle socks on - with ruffles of cascading white lace from the top of the socks (I fancied them)  

- teenager with jeans which were cut off at the knee and restarted at mid calf. The lower section held to the upper by four leather straps.

- very ordinary young man with a dashhound on a lead. Dashhound wore jeans, red and white jacket and sun glasses. (No I am not making this up)

- there were a number of goths. Witches hair, black torn cloths and black lace mittens with very long black finger nails.

I could go on. It was impossible to take photos. Firstly it seemed rude and secondly there was a great press of people. By 4 pm we needed lunch and ended up in a Bulgari cafe (I didn't know they did cafes). It was fantastically good and fantastically expensive but with a wonderful view of the street scene. After that we went back to the hotel. We are getting good at Tokyo trains.

The day before we had asked the hotel where we could eat Shabu-Shabu (see later) and they presented a choice of three places, one was very local, one was on the 35th floor of a skyscraper (we got the impression that the best that could be said of it was that the view was good) and one which she kept  saying 'very traditional. So we went there. It wtable!!as called Imahan. Firstly we had to take our shoes and then we were shown into a room just for us. Above is the alcove and flowers. There was alos a very attractive scroll. We sat on the floor but with a concession to us Westerns. There was a hole in the floor under the floor.

 And this is Shabu-Shabu. It is boiling water into which you put cut up vegetables and meat - in this case beef. The vegetables were several sorts of mushrooms and Chinese cabbage. The beef was the very high class Japanese beef (I think they sing to the cattle) which was delicious. At the end, noodles are cooked in the stock.

We did have several small first courses like sushimi and so on. It was expensive (about £100.0 each) but   it was definitely a cultural experience.

I am running one day behind and must try to catch up. Today we took the bullet train to Kyoto and had a fantastic afternoon - I will try to write that up either tonight or tomorrow first thing.

Ruth has decided that she must bring the whole family here for a holiday. She says Robin would have loved last night. So InsideJapan looks to be getting some more customers.