Azalea-colored Ambience. The Nezu Shrine Azalea Festival, 2015

Spring is in full effect in Tokyo, and at this time of year in Bunkyo City the Annual Azalea Festival at Nezu Shrine is the main event! This year my wife and I went to see the festival a bit later than usual and as a result had a totally new experience!

 We chose to go on the first day of the Golden Week holidays (4/29) which is something we usually avoid due to the heavy crowds. What we didn't know, however, is that the first day of Golden Week is a special day of the festival which includes special performances by local community performing arts clubs. It was definitely crowded, but the feeling of celebration that filled the shrine and spread throughout the atmosphere in our neighborhood made for a really great day!

Despite a bit of light cloud cover, it was a beautiful day, and as always the azaleas looked extremely lovely and provided a gorgeous backdrop for our local shrine. Hearing the music and singing drifting from the shrine's performance stage added an extra special flavor to this year's flower viewing.

Three veteran dancers from our local community hula dance club

Pre-performance practice session

Want to see some more? Here is a link to the Picasa album! As always, thanks for visiting! For my readers who are currently in Japan, you still have some time left! The festival continues until Wednesday, 5/6!

初梅花 / First Plum Blossoms of the Season

It's quite early in the season, but still I decided to take a long walk and head over to  Yushima Tenjin Shrine (湯島天神) (a.k.a. Yushima Tenmangu), in the Yushima neighborhood of Bunkyo City, for the start of the annual Plum Blossom Festival (梅祭り). There are very few blossoms to look at right now, but still the Shrine was alive with visitors enjoying the beautiful, albeit chilly day.

Yushima Tenjin Shrine originally dates back to the mid-5th century, but has lived on in the current form that you see here since the late 1400s. The buildings that stand today we're all constructed in 1995 as part of Japanese Shrines' traditional renewal. The Shrine is particularly famous for its long history as a place of study for Confucian scholars during the edo period (1603-1868), but also for its annual Plum Blossom Festival.

Yushima Tenjin Shrine has another, lesser-known claim to fame, which is that being directly adjacent to the University of Tokyo, receives thousands of student visitors each year. Students praying for success in their studies, write their wishes on these emma and leave them here for Tenjin (the primary God of the shrine).

The flowering plum trees are still almost all buds, but I still managed to get some nice floral shots.

If you would like to look at the rest of the photos form this set, please visit my Picasa Album. Thanks as always for visiting!

雪の東京２０１５年 - 根津神社 | Snowy Tokyo 2015 - Nezu Shrine

Snowstorms are a very rare occurrence for us here in Tokyo. I am definitely not complaining, but I enjoy some nice wintery weather once in a great while, so we've got to get out enjoy their fleeting beauty while we can! I decided to take my camera to Nezu Shrine this morning before heading in to the office to capture some of the scenery. Enjoy!

Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます！

根津神社 /  Nezu Shrine

Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます (Akemashite Omedetō Gozaimasu)!

This year the wife and I are enjoying a nice, quiet celebration of New Year (お正月 / O-shōgatsu):

1. Ate sushi
2. Watched the NHK Red and White Singing Competition (NHK紅白歌合戦 / NHK Kōhaku Utaga-sen)
3. Ate New Year’s Eve soba noodles (年越しそば / Toshikosi Soba)
4. Went to Nezu Shrine for the first shrine visit of the year (初詣 / Hatsumoude)
5. Took a bath and went to bed
6. As I write this, my wife is making a traditional New Year soup containing a light broth, chicken, shrimp and mochi called Ozōni (お雑煮).

We’re pretty tired after an exhausting week of spending Christmas in America coupled with nearly 40 hours of travel, so we wanted to have a quiet and relaxing New Year, and that’s exactly what we’re doing!

Happy New Year everyone!

Tokyo Drifter: Day Trip to Kamakura

Today's post is finishing up the last leg of last month's visit of my friends from Chicago. Unfortunately due to work responsibilities, my friend Valery needed to return to Chicago before the Phonaut, but I wanted to be sure and make the last day of Phonaut's journey a memorable one. I decided to show him around Kamakura (鎌倉)! I went to Kamakura for the first time 10 years ago on my second visit to Japan, and I had such a wonderful time that I wanted to share the experience with my good friend as well.

We got up early and headed off to Kamakura via the Yokosuka Line (横須賀線) from Shinbashi Station (新橋駅) and on to the Enoshima Electric Railway, a.k.a. "Enoden" (江ノ電). The weather was perfect and we enjoyed some fun sightseeing starting with, of course, the Great Buddha (大仏) in Hase (長谷).

Feeling refreshed by the centuries-long meditative peace and tranquillity of Buddha, we headed off to Hase Temple (長谷寺).

After hanging around in Hase for a while longer, it was back to Kamakura city for some shopping and a visit to the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine (鶴岡八幡宮).

Up until now I never had a home to go back to that was not thousands of miles away, so I took advantage of the opportunity to finally buy some of the famous Kamakura Ham. It was every bit a delicious as I'd always imagined! This seems sort of crazy, actually, because predictable answers to the question, "where is the most delicious ham you've ever eaten?" might be Germany, Poland, etc, but no-- Kamakura, Japan is the answer! 

Tired from a long day of exploration, we rode the Green Car (first class) back to Tokyo, enjoying a cold Kamakura Pale Ale while  making the return trip to Tokyo. A relaxing evening was all that was in store for us that night, and I'd have to say it was a great day!!

The rest of the photo's from the trip can be viewed here.