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| Little girl enjoying a fountain show at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. |
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| Namco's Namja Town. Namco themed food court. |
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| My theory is that Hello Kitty must have whacked all the other Sanrio characters. I mean seriously what happened to Kerroppi! |
Today the three of us decided to explore the districts of Ikebukuro and Chiyoda. Tim, who if you don’t know is a fantastic artist and draws inspiration from manga and anime, wanted to go to a place called Animate. Man I had no idea it was going to be a huge tower with 8 floors dedicated anime. The funny part is that most of the patrons were chicks. It seems that while Akihabara serves the male clientele, Ikebukuro is a center for female otaku culture. Either way it was really interesting to see how deeply you can get into this stuff.
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| Highschool or College ball players on the way to practice? |
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| Maxin and relaxin with a guitar under a tree. What a way to spend the day. |
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| Jr. High students on the way home. The giant Tori gate is behind them. |
After animate we walked on over to Chiyoda where the imperial palace and the controversial Yasukuni Shrine are located. First let’s talk about the imperial palace. As far as lodgings for royalty goes, I’m not that impressed. This is Japan, so it was, of course, impeccably clean and a wonderful place to take your family for a quiet day in well-manicured gardens, but it just didn’t strike me as being majestic. Still it was nice to stroll through there.
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| Yasukuni Shrine. |
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| Damn you white Tim! |
Now, the Yasukuni shrine on the other hand, was gorgeous. It is a beautifully restored Shinto shrine that’s dedicated to all the soldiers, civilians, and animals that gave their life in service of the emperor. According to Shinto belief once the Kami, or spirit, of a person is enshrined then their sins are absolved. Being a Shinto shrine, the place was full of priests and priestesses adorned in simple, yet stunningly beautiful garb. Unfortunately they didn’t like their pictures being taken. The entrance to the shrine is marked by two gigantic tori gates. And there must have been a school nearby because there were tons of students in and around the shrine. The main shrine itself is a beautiful combination of wood, stone, and tile. I love the Japanese take on religious architecture because their buildings blend so marvelously with the surrounding environment. They just seem to fit harmoniously without any effort at all.
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| Man you guys look delicious! Whoops?! Did I say that? ;) |
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| Mom and daughter at the imperial palace. |
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| Stargazer's I think. Either way they're from the imperial garden. |
The controversy that surrounds this place has to do with who is enshrined here. You see all those who died for the emperor are enshrined her including war criminals. And if you spend some time researching the issue, you’ll find that there are some pretty bad war criminals enshrined here. However, this is neither the place nor the time for a political discussion. I just liked how pretty it was. ;)
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| Chantra at the Eastern Imperial Gardens |
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