Year of the Tiger

Lucinda, Arno and I went to Yokohama's Chinatown last weekend to see the Chinese New Year festivities. Lots of fun. To kick off the post, here's video of a dragon dance in the parade.



Snapshots: The gate to Chinatown


Roasted chestnuts for sale. Lucinda loves them, and Arno tried them (very rare development) and liked them!


An old traditional house on the main street.


A dog, sitting in a stroller and wearing a dress with a denim skirt. (You have to look closely, but it's definitely a skirt.)


Lucinda, wearing a dress purchased by her grandparents in Beijing, and Arno, in a Chinese devil mask; in Japanese, it's called an "oni."


Lunch for sale: heaps of pork (I think).


Lucinda's lunch: a steamed meat bun from a street stall for 200 yen ($2).


Chinese children led the parade with dragon puppets.


The emperor, who spoke very good English when he wished the children "Happy New Year."


Another creature came over to greet us.


On to the rest of the Year of the Tiger!

Blaine's latest...

...is an incredibly sad story about a Korean man who took his wife and two daughters to North Korea and then abandoned them there. He lives in Seoul now, and as far as he knows, his wife and daughters are in a prison camp.

Headline: "A family and a conscience, destroyed by North Korea's cruelty"

And here's Blaine's video, also terribly sad:

Pre-spring

I saw these lovely plum blossoms in Aoyama cemetery about 10 days ago. Magenta blossoms, very fragrant.

Renovated playground

Most Tokyo playgrounds have woefully old equipment, but we went last weekend to a newly renovated playground - known as the "100 yen park" - after a family bike ride around Meiji Jingu Outer Gardens. The previous 100-yen incarnation had near-rusty jungle gyms over dirt. It now has clean, safe climbing equip and a long roll-y slide...


...a new swingset and tires to climb on...


...and a corral's worth of bouncy "Rody" horses.


There were even fancy wicker chairs for parents!


A hot-dog stand...


And astroturf around the trees. Not sure if it's meant to protect the trees from the kids or the kids from the trees.

Snowy morning

We had a treat this morning: actual feathery snow falling as we walked to school. Very rare in our Tokyo experience.

Funny buildings

I went for a walk recently in Kappabashi, the Tokyo neighborhood where you find kitchen and restaurant supplies. On this visit, I noticed some very odd decorations on buildings.

Like a giant beetle.


And a stack of coffee cups.

Blaine's latest...

... is an analysis of the Toyota situation, on p. A1.

Night out

Blaine and Lucinda went to the Father-Daughter dinner dance at the Tokyo American Club last night.

Polished

Curious machine: an automated shoe polisher in the subway station at Marunouchi, the banking district. 100 yen ($1) for 2 shoes, black or brown.

Minky

I saw a small dog wearing a mink coat today outside a grocery store. It looked like real mink. It's pretty chilly here - but mink for a dog?

Sadly, I didn't have my camera.

Armory

I haven't been carrying my camera as often lately, but I was glad I did on a recent pass through the Marunouchi business district.

I came up from the subway to the ground floor of the Marunouchi Building to find an amazing exhibit of Samurai armor reproductions, including some designs from the 1500s.


Most helmets had very cool shapes and designs, presumably to identify samurai from a great distance.





And one (in this photo, near right, click pic for closeup) was extraordinarily Darth Vader-esque. I would not be surprised if George Lucas was a samurai-culture aficionado.