Gotoku-temple

We went to Gotoku-temple. the temple is not so far from Shinjuku or Shibuya, however there’s many trees & flowers ;)
The Gotoku-temple has an opinion this temple is the lucky-cats’ birthplace.

One day over 370 years ago, the feudal lord named Ii passed by this temple ,a cat rised its right hand and act like to say “Please come in!!” he wondered that & went with the cat.

Just after a moment he came into the temple, there comes a thunderstorm!
the lord thought the cat is genius & bring lucky, so he made there to family temple.
Maybe he was a cat lover!!(^_-)* it’s a cute legend, I think.

Gotoku-Ji (Gotoku-temple) （in Japanese Wikipedia）

Gonpachi Roppongi (Nishiazabu)

Let me talk about a Japanese restaurant/izakaya Gonpach in Nish-Azabu, Roppongi.

Well, I guess many of you may already have heard about this place as it has been quite famous already. The former Prime Minister, Mr. Koizumi took President Bush here, and it was used as a movie-set, which Uma Thurman played the action scenes of “Kill Bill”.

by switchstyle

Kill Bill

I’ve just been there for the first time and was surprised to see there were more foreigners than local customers. Some of their staff can speak English and the price is reasonable, it would be good place for a traveler. It seems that many business men transferred from overseas frequent here.

You can enjoy a good dinner of a la carte including yakitori, sashimi or donburi together with some sake, and it would only cost about 5,000 yen (about $50 US. ) per person.

To me as a Japanese person, the caricatured Japanese-style interior was very interesting!

It is about 10 min. walk from Roppongi subway station, located at the Nish-Azabu intersection.

Gonpachi

Daikanyama Kurodai : Taiyaki shop

Tai(sea bream)-yaki(bake) is a Japanese fish-shaped waffle within sweet bean paste.

Its a casual snack even you can eat while walking. Daikanyama kurodai is a famous yummy taiyaki shop :9

We tried “plain” basic sweet bean paste with mochi dumpling. In addition, they have “maccha” and “black sesame” taste. Can you see we’ve got “grown-up” size & “baby” size?

Daikanyama Taiyaki Kurodai
taiyaki (wikipedia)

Ginza Lunch

Ginza. The hamburger steak set includes salad, rice, boiled vegetables and miso soup.

The sanuki udon set includes inari-zushi, tempura(Japanese deep-fried food) and a plate of meat.They are 1,050 yen each which are very reasonable price in Ginza. I’m sure you can get full and satisfied.

Sun-mi TAKAMATSU

Hankyu men’s : department store in Osaka for only men’s fashion

The “men’s products only” fashion building “Hankyu men’s” has been opened at the Hankyu department store in Osaka.

by MShades

They have the world-first Louis Vuitton shop that only men’s products on offer, or the world-second shop of Tom Ford, who used to work at Gucci, following its NY’s open and so on, and this must be an endlessly-so- interesting department store for those men who are into fashion.

TOM FORD by nikkei trendy net

In addition, there are many other men’s only stores of some of the luxury brand such as Bvlgari or Tiffany. On the casual-ware side, they have the Under Cover, N.HOOLYWOOD or Hysteric Glamour etc. on offer.

by nikkei trendy net

It sounds like that the “Isetan Men’s” for Tokyo and “Hankyu men’s” for Osaka will become the epicenters of men’s fashion in Japan. I’d love to go there with a guy with a good taste in fashion.

Hankyu men’s(more photos)

Shibuya Crossing AD

This is the most well-known, even globally, scramble crossway in Shibuya. There are 4 large outdoor screens, and the advertising fee for the most eye-caching, largest one is 10,000 US dollars per week. (They’d broadcast your ads four times in one hour from 9:00 a.m. to 24:00 p.m.)

Vidal Sassoon 2007 Spring campaing feat. Japanese female singer “Namie Amuro”

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TORAYA : traditional confectionery in Japan

TORAYA is one of the oldest makers of traditional confectionery in Japan.
Every piece of wagashi confections is made of the finest ingredients using the most careful methods. Each of the shops is committed to providing both the highest quality wagashi and sincere, considerate service.

These are”Abekawa mochi with maccya green tea” and “Awazenzai with maccya green tea” from TRAYA tea room in Ginza.

Abekawa mochi (pounded glutinous rice) is dusted with a light coating of sweetened kinako. Kinako is a tan or beige flour made by grinding whole roasted soybeans.

Awazenzai is a sweet dish consisting of millet pounded into a glutinous mass that is shaped into cakes and covered in sweet adzuki bean paste.

TORAYA English Web Page

Yokohama red brick warehouse

Yokohama is a city near from Tokyo. You can go there by train in 30 minutes or so. Many noted beautiful places are in there, Yokohama people are very proud of their town;)

I went to Yokohama red brick warehouse. The warehouse was built in 1907, it was of course warehouse at first. then became US army headquarters when WW2 was over. after that, became warehouse again. Now, there is not. there are many foods, clothes, zakka shops!
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Piece of Peace Tokyo : LEGO exhibition

I looked in Shibuya Parco LOGOS gallary. The exhibition named “Piece of Peace - world heritage exhibit built with LEGO” is holding until 25th Feb. 2008.

You can see “Tower of Pisa”, “Shirakawago”, “Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen”, and “Tower of Effel”.

If you think you want to see more and it’s OK to pay for that, please go up to Parco Factory in 6th floor.

There are 26 world heritages built by LEGO.

Piece of Peace - world heritage exhibit built with LEGO

What Japanese food “Monjayaki” ?

“monojyayaki”

Do you know “monjayaki”? It’s similar to “okonomiyaki”, but “monjayaki” is known as a snack food of Kanto area including Tokyo, while “okonomiyaki” is its counter-food in West Japan such as Hiroshima or Osaka.

This is “okonomiyaki”.

“okonomiyaki” by laughlin

“monjayaki” is made like this: Firstly mix the ingredients like cabbages and sea food with water and flour, then place the mixture on a heated plate. As you turn and mind the mixtures with scraper tool, the liquids is evaporated. Once the mixture is partially sort of burnt it is ready. Now you’d take the individual smaller scraper and help yourself a small portion by scraping the cooked (burnt) mixture directly from the plate.

The way of cooking and eating “monjayaki”

I know eating burnt bits is rather wired and shocking way of eating, but it is tasty.

eating “monjayaki”

There is a “monjayaki” restaurant that had celebrities including Brad Pitt visited in Tukishima, a downtown area of Tokyo. I reckon trying ”monjayaki” is becoming a part of Tokyo tourism for foreigners?

Monjayaki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia